Archive | March, 2009

AZ Masters Cycling Names Composite Team!

The Arizona Masters Racing Composite Team Roster is now final!

Brian Forbes of Cycling Fitness Performance/RideClean will lead the team as the Rider/Coach. For more information go to www.CyclingFitnessPerformance.com or www.AZMastersRacing.com.

The AZ Masters Racing Composite Team will Race at the following California Races:

  • May 31st – The Paramount Grand Prix – Master’s SCNCA Criterium Championships
  • June 27th – The Green Trolley Criterium
  • June 28th – The Manhattan Beach Grand Prix
  • July – TBD
  • August – TBD

AZ MASTERS RACING COMPOSITE TEAM ROSTER

Bryan Antol (GST)

Jeff Baylor (Bicycle Ranch)

Michael Castro (Bicycle Ranch)

Tim Fleming (Swiss American)

Brian Forbes (RideClean)

Craig Hamilton (Swiss American)

Kurt Kroemer (Swiss American)

Phil Lovaglio (Swiss American)

Travis McMaster (Tribe)

Richard Murray (Swiss American)

Raymond Papineau (Swiss American)

Jim Penn (Swiss American)

Bob Pongratz (Swiss American)

Jim Pongratz (Team Waste Management)

John Ritter (Bicycle Ranch)

Jim Silverman (GST)

Matt Sniegowski (Taser)

Bryan Staub (Swiss American)

Todd Tankersley (Swiss American)

Dan Whitehill (Swiss American)

Jim Woodburne (Swiss American)

Chris Wylie (Colavita)

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Colossal Cave Results – Now Posted!

The Colossal Cave Stage Race results have now been posted.

Click here to view the results.

Posted in Arizona Cycling, EventsComments (1)

CALL TO ACTION – Please Read!

Dearest Brethren of the Saddle,

Let’s face it, it’s getting tougher and tougher to promote a road race these days. All you have to do is look at our Arizona racing calendar and it’s slowly revealing itself. The restrictions are piling up and it’s making the necessary permits too tough and costly to obtain. As you read this, there’s a battle going on in the east valley over the use of the Bush Highway. We’ve all ridden and enjoyed that stretch of road by Saguaro Lake and if action isn’t taken soon we’ll never race on it again…

See: Usery Pass Time Trial, Usery Pass Road Race, Arizona Xtreme Desert Tri and Saguaro Lake Tri to name a few.

Below is a letter from Sterling Baer, president of the Red Mountain Brumby’s cycling group. You think your club/team is big? This guy’s running an empire of cyclists out in Mesa. The letter is long, but well worth the read…

Unless you only want to see criterium’s in our cycling future.

———-

Many of you may or may not be a resident of Maricopa County, but a cycling citizens petition campaign has been launched to literally “Save the Tour de Phoenix” and we need every cyclists support. We have a wonderful tradition of the Tour de Phoenix in the greater Phoenix area that followed in the footsteps of the Tour de Tucson. For 17 years the route has safely traversed a beautiful section of road called Old Bush Highway that runs through Maricopa County and Tonto National Forrest.

Last year ALL events were prohibited use of this section of road due to “new regulations” imposed by the Maricopa Co Transportation Dept. This affected a planned Mesa Marathon, Triathalons, Usery TT, RAGNAR Relay, the Tour de Phoenix to name a few. All were denied permits. Representing the 425+ group of Cyclists in my Red Mountain Brumbys gang, I led an effort to rescind the prohibition of permits and fortunately PBAA ceased efforts to cancel the Tour after 17 years without a single traffic incident along that stretch of road. While the permit was granted, new restrictions were imposed requiring one lane of this two lane road be closed and adding signifant more costs.

These costs forced PBAA to reconsider cancelling the event again and refunding all cyclists their money because these cost increases put them in a first time ever negative position. Cancelling it altogether would cost them a great deal of money as well yet putting on the event regardless of losing money would also not allow them to provide ANY funds to their committed Charities. We all want and support safe events, but raising Traffic control costs up to 700% is simply not acceptable.

We are asking all Cyclists to send a message to Maricopa County Dept of Transportation to lift these new restrictions and agree to a compromise. We want our community to create an atmosphere such that we can grow the Tour de Phoenix to the level of prominence and community/local goverment cooperation that exists with the Tour de Tucson. We hope that you can help us communicate this to our officials.

Our Mesa Mayor Scott Smith has been a terrific support of this effort to “Save the Tour” and so has County Supervisor Don Stapley. If you could please send a note and ask all that you know to do the same, we would greatly appreciate it. During these economic times we do not need additional costs levied at taxpayer expenses when they are not necessary.

Please direct your emails to Don Stapley and copy the following:

Don Stapley <dstapley@mail.maricopa.gov>
Mayor Scott Smith <mayor.smith@mesaaz.gov>
Nikki Amberg <nikki.amberg@mesaaz.gov>
John Counts, MCDOT <JohnCounts@mail.maricopa.gov>
Nicolaas Swart MCDOT <nicolaasswart@mail.maricopa.gov>
John Hauskins MCDOT <johnhauskins@mail.maricopa.gov>
James Candland MCDOT <candlandj@mail.maricopa.gov>
Sterling Baer <sabaer@us.ibm.com>

Thank you!

———-

Thanks for reading.

Have you sent your email yet?

Posted in Arizona Cycling, EventsComments (2)

AZ Masters Racing Series – Current Standings!

2009 Cycling Fitness Performance Arizona Masters Racing Points Series, points now updated!

Go here www.azmasterracing.com or click here.

What an outstanding weekend for The GST Masters Racing Team, with the most points ever earned in a single weekend of racing! 243 Total Points.

This positions the team as the firm leader in the series.

Huge winning performances from Jesus Lamb (GST), Peter Brown (GST), David Bixby (Team RPM), Bill McDorman (Team One), Scott Biaggi (GST) and Brian Antol (GST).

See you all next week at The U of A Crit and Tumacacori Road Race

Thanks,

Bryan Staub

Also: any Masters Racers who are interested in racing on a AZ Masters Racing Composite Team in California at The Manhattan Beach Grand Prix and possibly a couple of other races please email me this week as we are in the process of finalizing the roster. Pactimo is sponsoring us in this effort as we will have an AZ Masters Racing Team kit. I will have a fit kit this week and will bring it to the races this weekend for racers to try on sizes. Brian Forbes is also sponsoring us and is the process of developing a plan.

MUST email me by MONDAY 3-30 with interested racers to bryanstaub@cox.net

Posted in Arizona Cycling, EventsComments (1)

Arizona Teams Doing Battle in Redlands, CA. – Final Results Posted!

Arizona Teams Doing Battle in Redlands, CA. – Final Results Posted!

The 2009 Redlands Classic is underway! Yesterday saw the event start with a 5km prologue that finished on a heart breaker of a steep climb… It aint pretty! Curious how the local AZ team’s and their riders stack up against the best riders domestic cycling has to offer? Click here for the prologue results.

*Update: Stage one see’s a windy day in the saddle for the local riders. Read about it here.

**Update: Stage two and three prove to be tough days in the saddle for all! See all the results of stage two and three.

The Redlands Bicycle Classic is one of America’s premier stage races taking place in Redlands, California on March 26-29.

For more race information, please click here or here.

Posted in Arizona Cycling, EventsComments (1)

Everything Old Is New Again.

“Hold on to those bell-bottom jeans.”  My mother told me. “You never know when they will come back in style.” Turns out she was right. Sure enough; Bell-bottomed jeans did make a comeback sometime in early 2003 if my memory serves. All the celebrities and fashion barons were dredging up the hippie look to run it up the flagpole of fashion again, this time in trendy boutiques at $200 dollars a whack.  Being fashion conscious (as well as cripplingly cheap) I remembered the box I had stored and thought to myself “I’m sitting on a gold mine here.” Well it turns out I can’t wear the same pants I did when I was 7 not to mention they now carried the distinct odor of mold and three decade old Yoo-hoo farts. (I used to drink the stuff by the gallon back then).

I have seen another trend seeping its way back into the mainstream from relative obscurity, this one I don’t have a box full of being stored in the garage; Fixed gear bikes. If you take a moment to look around you might be surprised at the amount of “new” bicyclists that are riding fixed gears on the streets here in Arizona, in specific clustered around, ASU, Mill Ave. and downtown Phoenix. Fixed gear bikes are obviously the epoch of bicycle culture. Everything that bicycles have become came from those first models. The Victorian aged Boneshaker or Penny-farthing bike is an early example of a fixed drive train.  While the current models “kids” these days are riding don’t have much in common with those bikes, they are still the same idea; a form of utilitarian transportation boiled down to the bare bone essentials. That’s not to say the bikes are all built on the cheap. On the contrary, some of the bikes out there cost as much as your carbon roadie with a lot less accouchements’. No shifters, no derailleur’s, no cassettes, no chain tensioner, no cables, no levers, and most importantly; no brakes. This part seems to be what attracts the youth to the bike.  In their eyes it’s a new daring take on an old idea, kind of like selling bell-bottom jeans at Nordstrom’s.

Although many other cities with a dense downtown and a need for a bicycle messengers might say “fixed gears are soooo 2002.” Their popularity is only increasing in most measurable aspects. A local site; AZFixed.com, describes itself as “all things fixed gear in Arizona” It isn’t a self appointed expert, but rather a forum for local riders and event information. A number of alleycats, or fixed gear point-to-point messenger styled races are advertised on the site regularly and one of the sites administrators tells me there are over 500 regular posters with tens of thousands of page views per day. A statistical breakdown might find as many posts about women and beer drinking as bicycles, but isn’t that true of any bike related website? I’m not saying you are sitting on a gold mine, but that old steel frame you have hanging up behind your wife’s SUV in the garage, might just make a sweet fixie conversion.

-G. O’Dell [reporter at large]

Posted in Arizona CyclingComments (5)

Jean jacket for sale!

Jean jacket for sale!

My friends warned me. My competitors scared me. The scale exposed me. My subconscious lied to me.

I don’t know why I’ve ever listened to that voice in my head. It’s the same voice in college that said “Of course you can handle your liquor!” It was also the voice that said “You should wear your jean jacket on your date tonight…lady-killer.” Again, that voice manipulated me to the start line of the Superior Road Race.

I have participated in a few races in my time with some fairly resilient competition, but nothing prepared me for the relentless “Great Wall of Superior”. As I watched the truly talented riders glide away that little voice in my head ironically turned on me….

Before the race I was “an explosive force of cycling strength prepared to shatter my competition into tiny pieces of shame and humiliation”. As I ascended the “Great Wall of Superior” the only explosive force I was feeling was 3 water bottles in my bladder and my lungs trying to escape through my throat.

Now that little voice was not so little. It’s screaming; berating me like the drill instructor from Full Metal Jacket: “You are such a F&$k^#G IDIOT! What made you think you could do this you fat bastard! Do you see those guys riding effortlessly away from you! No you don’t, because you’re breathing so hard you’re cross-eyed and quite possibly have crapped in your bibs.”

Pathetic? Maybe, but I have a whole new perspective of our local PRO’s!

If you have attempted this race then you have my utmost admiration.

If you haven’t competed in this race then I don’t respect you. You are not a “road racer” so please sell your DeRosa for some neon rollerblades with corresponding wrist guards or take up fixie bike polo poseur.

Rusty Chain

Posted in Rusty's RantsComments (2)

Back on the Road by Ron Jensen

As has gone for the past few seasons, it is once again time for me and a few others from Arizona to hit the old dusty trail. The National Racing Calendar gets up to speed this coming weekend with the Redlands Cycling Classic in Redlands, California.

This race signals the change from a preparation mentality, to a buckle down and be ready to box mindset. NRC races like this are the places where aspiring young athletes like myself go to put our hard efforts to the test and do our best to showcase our talents. The excitement that arises from the opportunity to do so for the first time this season, is as high as its ever been for me.

A strong winter training base in Tucson, along with a the quality early season races like Valley of the Sun, Tucson Bicycle Classic and the handful of hotly contested Crits have brought me to Cali with the confidence and form to toe the line with the best riders in the nation.

The final touch has been added to my prep with the San Dimas Stage Race over the past weekend. Although it is not an ideal ride for myself, its a perfect reminder of the level that we are racing at, the matches must be burned wisely. In addition, the team as a whole looks like it will be ready to hold its own against a stacked field this weekend.

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Arizona Masters Racing Points Series – Update!

Cycling Fitness Performance Arizona Masters Racing Points Series Results Now
Updated!

Superior Road Race – Points Results Now Updated!

Go to the website to see: www.azmastersracing.com

  • GST stretches out the lead over Swiss American Masters Racing as the Top

Points earner for the Superior Road Race.

  • Racer Highlights – Jim Silverman of GST Won the Masters 40+ Race and Don

Williams of Team RPM Won the Masters 50+ Race!

The Cliff Bar April Fools Day Bonus will be awarded following the Colossal Cave Stage Race:

$350 in Cliff Products to the Mid Season Points Leader on April 1st.

See you this weekend at The Colossal Cave Stage Race.

For info, go to www.presteza.com

Thanks,

Bryan Staub

Posted in Arizona CyclingComments (0)

Superior Road Race Results – Now Posted!

Results are now posted for last Saturday’s Superior Road Race. Please view our ‘Results’ page or click here.

Unfortunately, the Superior Criterium was cancelled.

Posted in Arizona Cycling, EventsComments (0)

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