Cycling Pigs

Its that time again for the Cycling Pigs to ride again. RAGBRAI is set to start in another month. Its only 4 weeks until the planes leave for Iowa or rather Omaha Nebraska where we fly in. Omaha is the staging area for another great Ride Across Iowa.

As many of you know the recent rains have flooded out central sections of Iowa and part of the intended ride route. I do not think that any of these terrible floods will effect the ride even though it has effected thousands of residents of Iowa. The damaged homes will not have had time to receive full repair when the ride begins and many Iowans will be still struggling with the aftermath of the heavy rains and flooding that these 500 years water levels have brought. We will spend a much money as we can when going through these areas so maybe that could help cheer up some spirits. We are looking into some possible donation sites right now so that more help could be channeled into the right direction.

This year the Cycling Pigs group has grown. Last year there were four, this year we total eight. The Cycling Pigs has doubled in one year. Thats a pretty good average. So we will see how things go. More to follow soon.

Andy my riding buddy just picked up a used Eddy Merckx Corsa Extra frame this past week. After fine tuning at Temple City Bike shop the bike looks awesome. Actually its exactly like mine except for the paint. Both frames are the Corsa Extra in 56 cm. His is the Blue and Red while mine is the Team colors of the 7-11 fame circa mid 1980’s. Bob Roll who is now announcing on Versus Direct TV was a member of the 7-11 “Team Slurpy”.

Today we took off from Stan’s Monrovia Bike shop for the usual ride down to South Pasadena and the Heirloom Bakery shop. Yummmmy those Heirloom cakes are really something special. We had to ride extra just to work off the calories from the cakes we ate this morning but that is our usual routine anyway.

I picked up the Eddy Merckx Corsa Extra last year when the frame came out as a reissue of the team frame. In the bottom of the cellar at the Eddy Merckx shop in Brussels there were a few stacks of old tubes left from the days of the Corsa Extra. These frames were origanalluy made from Columbus Tubing and this tube set is no longer being manufactured by Columbus. Some one had the great idea of using up the remained of the tube sets and to put out a limited edition of the Team Frame that sported this tube set - Team 7-11. There were only one hundred of these frames made last year and I picked one up as soon as they became available. The only difference between the reissued frame sets and the ones made in the 80’s is the threadless folk. The reissue still sports the all steel fork but mine is a threadless variety that was not thought of in the mid 1980’s.

Andy will be one of the riders in this years annual Cycling Pigs great Iowa adventure at RAGBRAI. I am looking forward to this ride in July very much. I don’t think Andy will be taking his Corsa Extra to Iowa but its an idea anyway. I will be getting a new travel bike to take made by Dean Cycles in Boulder Colorado. I just talked to John there at the shop and he told me the frame is brazed up and is just going through quality assurance now. Maybe in a couple of weeks I will put up some pictures of the new titanium travel bike with S&S couplers. More on this later for sure but for now it back into the woodwork. This March starts a training cycle that will take me through the summer. My plans for Iowa is to kick some major butt!

This year we did it! The Cycling Pigs are registered as a Group yipppppeeeee! After last year’s misadventure in getting our Cycling Pigs group signed up I figured it out finally. You know it always makes sense to read the directions carefully especially when doing something new for the first time. You see I did not do that last year and we all ended up registered as individuals. Not a good thing for the group. We all had to scramble to get week long passes which did take a little toll on our patience.

This year we may have eight. Exactly double the number of riders that went last year. Will Eight be enough? We will see in Michael comes on board for the ride of the summer. Now we have other worries like who is going into what tent! If this is all that we have to worry about then we are Golden! So follow along with us and check out last years pictures. I will try to get Russ’s photo collection up to flickr soon so there will be more to drool over.

The last few days have really been warm and the riding great. Juli and Michael did the Palm Springs Century and had a blast while I was tied up with home chores. I did get out for a great ride Sunday and today rode with Stan around the Santa Fe Dam so the training has started! Stay tuned.

The Register’s Annual Great Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) is coming up in July and the Cycling Pigs are again ready to ride. Last year the Fiersom Foursome, Nancy, Russ, Juli and myself were the Cycling Pig ambassadors from the San Gabriel Valley. We did a pretty good job of representing our area. As many of you know Lance Armstrong and the Live Strong riders were there is force. Iowa will never be the same.

This year the Cycling Pigs are at it again. So far there are seven riders who will be enjoying themselves for the week long ride across Iowa. The route is out and from what I hear will be a little hillier than last year with a total of 22.,000 plus feet of climbing over the seven day period. Again, the total millage will be just under 500 miles which will make for very pleasant days on the road.

Yesturday I finally uploaded the pictures from last years RAGBRAI adventure to flickr. You can see all of the pictures here.

This year I promise to keep a regular log going over the week and post pictures as they happen. I have bee taking a break as you can see from all of the blogging but will never the less keep up with this event.

For a full report on all that is related to the Cycling Pigs, check out their website from the link above or just do a Google search. Ciao!

Its just a few days before we leave for our RAGBRAI adventure.  The bags are packed, the bicycle shipped and our spirits are running high.  This week work will take up the better part of Monday through Wednesday but the rollers are ready for me when I get home.

Getting the right stuff together for the trip has been like the temptation in the desert for the past fourty days and nights.  Resisting the urge to go out and buy up new stuff to take along has been a battle which I must confess has been a see saw victory.  Take the Therm-A-Rest mattress thing as an example.  I was in REI the other day looking around resiting tempation when I was reminded that I had to have a under sleeping bad mattress.  REI has bunches of them resonably priced.  So I picked one up without thinking too much and took it home.  Today I was rumaging through my motorcycle duffle bad I have used for camping trips in the past and found TWO of the Therm-A-Rest mattresses.  I took the REI thingy back.

The four of us Cycling Pigs have wrist bands and will all be traveling to Iowa in a couple of weeks.  I shipped my Look bicycle last week and it should arrive by UPS in the morning in Council Bluffs to the Pork Belly head quarters.  The fees that UPS charge are outrageous - $200 bucks for the  bike with a little insurance.  It makes me want to go out and order a traveling frame with S &S couplers.

The bike I want to get is a Dean titanium with the couplers but that is for next year.  For today I will struggle on with the large bike box and the $200 dollar shipping.

I goofed it up this year with our little cycling group the Cycling Pigs.  As it turned out I did not submit all of our applications waivers and fees at one time resulting in chaos.  No SMURF is not on the rampage it is just that we ended up as individuals rather than as a group.  One of the five of our little Cycling Pigs was selected in the lottery.  How are those odds?

So what happens to the rest of us after the lottery is more chaos.  Well maybe not the appocaliptic variety just hastle.  Stephani dropped out and the rest of us have been on the hunt for wrist bands on sale for transfer.  As of this morning we all have wrist bands except Russ who should be in line for getting one soon.

My new waiver in posted in the mail this morning so the transfer of my new shinny wrist band should be official next week some time.  Now off for more training!

I just received a third letter for the folks at Pork Belly Ventures.  The bus is filed or so it seams but not to worry we have registered one and all of us here at Cycling Pigs.  Today was a great day for riding.  After a 30 mile little spin with the guys down at Stan’s Monrovia Bikes I went to our new house to check out what we have to do in the next couple of months before we can move in.  Its going to be great!

The letter from Peter is below:

Hey, Porkers,

We predicted that by now our weeklong support would be full, but to our surprise, we are virtually full on almost every service we offer. Our numbers may be a little misleading–not everyone has sent payment, and some folks may have changed their plans without telling us. But according to the registrations we have received, here is the status of each service:

Bus Omaha/Rock Rapids: Within 35 seats of FULL
East/West Shuttle: Within 10 seats of FULL
Weeklong support: FULL
Bus Bellevue/Omaha: Within 10 seats of FULL

If you haven’t registered at all, we’re starting a waiting list for weeklong support, and as necessary, we’ll do the same for the other services. If you’re on a waiting list, complete an application form at www.pkbelly.com and type “Put me on the waiting list” in the comments section. Then send in full payment immediately. That way, as soon as a spot becomes available, we’ll be able to assign it to you. (We will contact you to let you know you are in.)

If you have registered and sent payment for the services you need, then please don’t worry. Just write to us if your check doesn’t clear within a week or ten days.

If you have registered and have NOT sent payment for the services you need, then please send payment right away and/or get in touch and tell us your plans. (Some of you have already been in touch, and thanks for that. Particularly if you haven’t traveled with us before, we do need to hear from you.)

A number of you weren’t yet sure at the time you registerd whether you needed bus transportation, so you registered for weeklong support only. We believe that soon, when a little dust clears, we’ll have room for all of you on our buses, and we would like to assign you seats BEFORE we begin to assign seats to those on waiting lists. We especially urge you to send payment immediately if you need bus service from us.

Thanks for your prompt attention to this stuff, and we promise that not all Pork Updates will be so deadly serious. We hope that spring weather is allowing you to get out and feel the wind whistle through your helmets.

Stay tuned for more Pork News as it happens.
Best,
Tammy and Pete

This is the year of the Golden Pig so it is only fitting for us to don our golden jersey’s for our bicycle rides this year. My wife Jennifer is still in China visiting with her family for the New Years Celebration. Thankfully she will be back home this week. To have her month away is a long time for this little piggy. From what I understand this year will be a very auspicious year to have children. According to an Ecconomist.com article the Asian birthrate should really be high this year.

I just received this update from the great people at Pork Belly Ventures. These are the people that we are traveling with for our ride through Iowa latter this summer . For very resonable rates they are picking us up from Omaha and setting up our camp spot each night of our RAGBRAI ride. All of the group from Cycling Pigs that is going this year is encouraged to call Pete immediately for a spot with their tour if they have not done so already. The Cycling Pigs will be traveling with these folks so if you plan on coming with us it is not enough just to register for the RAGBRAI ride. Please call me directly if there is any question about this. From what I understand the Pork Belly Venture tour will be full by the end of March so rushing to call them would not be too fast if you want a spot in our camp. Otherwise you are on your own folks. Whatever happens it will be fun so stress out not so we can relax later is what my Papy always used to say.

March 4, 2007
Greetings, Porkers!

Yesterday, there was a big parade in San Francisco celebrating the Year of the Pig. In fact, there is speculation on whether this is an ordinary Year of the Pig or an extraordinary “Golden Year of the Pig.” Given today’s news about the RAGBRAI route, we vote “golden.”

The Route Detail:
Richard Doak and Brian Duffy, Des Moines Register Staff Writers, say that no stretches of gravel are planned this year (good news for skinny-tire folks) and the steepest climb you’ll encounter on Day 3 is the approach to a bridge over I-35. Despite other factors which will almost certainly have a bearing–wind, precipitation, and temperature–it looks pretty wonderful. Daily mileage, shorter as the week goes on, is as follows:

Sunday, 75.7 miles 5 pass-through towns
Monday, 77.4 miles 9 pass-through towns and the Karras Loop
Tuesday, 71.1 6 pass-through towns
Wednesday, 68.2 5 pass-through towns
Thursday, 62.9 4 pass-through towns
Friday, 64.7 5 pass-through towns
Saturday, 56.6 5 pass-through towns

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I have taken the liberty of reproducing Brian Duffy’s Personal Training Tips and posting them here at CyclingPigs.com/. The link below is to the RAGBRAI web site where this article is taken from. Enjoy and be safe out there!

Personal Preparation Tips from RAGBRAI Host Brian Duffy

Personal Preparation Tips from Register Host Brian Duffy
For those of you who have not heard, RAGBRAI Co-founder John Karras penned his last postcard from the ride in 2000 and retired as a co-host. John assures us that he will still be riding RAGBRAI but he has joined the ranks of cyclo-tourist whose only worry will be what type of pie to have. I am the front-page cartoonist for The Des Moines Register, and was named as a co-host of RAGBRAI in 2000. I have ridden and drawn cartoons on the ride since 1988, so I am not brand new to RAGBRAI.

I have dabbled in every type of cycling from criterium racing to a few ultra-marathon events. It was through the ultra-marathon experience that I discovered riding 400 kilometers in a day can make the hands go numb and that is not a good thing for someone in my business.

In addition to the host gig, I have inherited Karras’ traditional training tips column. For those of you who live in Iowa or other northern climes, our winters are not conducive to outdoor riding. Many of you are forced to sit on a trainer, rollers or take spinning classes to get your cycling fix. I’m sure one thing that you have found is how exceedingly difficult it is to force yourself to sit on a trainer for an hour, even with a whole library of old Tour de France tapes to keep you pedaling. The key to indoor cycling workouts is to vary the types and intensity. One day a week, work on hill climbs doing a group of steady efforts lasting five to seven minutes a piece. Another day, work in an easy gear and concentrate on your pedal stroke. Another day, practice short hard intervals that get you close to your maximum heart rate. If you feel nauseous or light-headed while doing a workout, stop immediately.

Many health clubs offer spinning classes that incorporate many of the techniques already mentioned. Don’t forget that cycling uses other parts of your body, not just your legs, heart and lungs. Do crunches for the abdominal muscles because strong abs help decrease the chance of back problems. Push ups and bicep curls with weights are great exercises for your arms. If you find you are experiencing shoulder or neck pain when riding, try this exercise. Hold a dumbbell in each hand with your arms relaxed at your sides. Shrug your shoulders for three sets of 10 reps.

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