New sponsor new name!!!

Check out the team site to the right. Now the team is XRG -Prohelmet.org

Such an awesome day outside, wish there was time to ride but it is Turkey day!!! Sweet a recovery day.

New bike

3 weeks back

Feel awesome after being back on the bike for 3 weeks.  The fitness is coming back and so is the motivation.  Taking a month off the bike and from any real kind of exercise does weird things to your psyche as well as your body.  However, it all comes back after a couple of weeks on the bike.  Especially, when you have the new team bikes to ride on.   sweet....sweet....sweet....

Jared's Column

The letter at the bottom is from my friend Jared. A very smart man and I 'mostly' agree with his views. The important thing is that he is one of the few people who cares and investments a great deal of his time and energy trying to figure out what is going on with this country of ours.

The current situation that we are faced with is unprecedented; as far as what the Fed is doing by printing off extremely large amounts of money in an attempt to bail out companies and the economy, effectively owning (outright) large private companies, owning a large amount of derivatives from mortgages and other loans, inflation is holding steady even though there is a large influx of dollars on the market.....

What does it all mean? Nobody really knows. The macro economists are baffled because we should have hyperinflation right now but we don't. Is inflation coming or not?

What happens when the government starts owning a great deal of private companies, loans and land? Isn't this what we have been trying to get developing countries to get away from because it is inefficient and drains the countries coffers? It also leads to distress and revolution....

What happens when other countries (who own controlling shares in our economy) start dictating what the government policy is going to be? (what has happened...)

And now the new thing.
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Hello Martin and team,

I enjoy reading you and your teams e-articles pretty regularly, but wanted to highlight a current development that I believe the final implications of have not been fully explored. I bring this up hoping that it can be discussed to either relieve my concerns or at least to raise peoples awareness that the new government programs will likely have unintended consequences.

I read this morning about the government's "deed-in-lieu of foreclosure plan" where instead of foreclosing the government will take the residential property deed and rent to property to the homeowner instead. It seems to me that given that the government has already purchased unknown (but huge) amounts of mortgage backed derivatives from banks, owns huge amounts of residential mortgages through government owned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is continuing to increase the government backed / owned mortgages by financing 90+% of new mortgages, and NOW has created an option to take the property deed and rent to house out. Is it just me, or is there a conflict of interest which leads to the government taking control of a large portion of US private residential property. And it is self perpetuating, since by artificially supporting high property values at very low interest rates, private residential lending will remain unprofitable and thus private financing will avoid lending to purchase residential property, the government will continue to be the only willing lender, because it can print money or borrow at effectively 0% it can loan nearly without limit... as a higher and higher proportion of mortgages get behind because of high payments, the government just takes the deed and rents back to the owners. Suddenly the government owns vast sections of residential America?!

I hope I am just paranoid, but the progression is a little too scary to be left unsaid. Could you please address this in one of you e-articles?

Thanks!
Jared Stein

Great day in Sun Valley

Just got back from an awesome day in Sun Valley riding with my boy Lynch. The weather was just right and I tripled the mileage of my previous longest ride of the season. I am out of shape....as I should be after a month off the bike. 

streetcar

I would urge anyone who supports this silly idea of a streetcar in downtown Boise, to go look at the numbers.  It is not an economical or practical decision.  Why waste the resources on an ill thought-out idea?  Like my friend Jared said "if you want to find the cheapest way to do something look at a third world country."  They don't have street cars but instead use a bus system.  Some of these bus systems are absolutely ingenious.

Quote, Quoted by Lynch, that I stole

You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering.

-Henri-Frédéric Amiel

 

First Ride

Yesterday was the first ride of the season and it was awesome.  The weather was perfect and my legs didn't feel that bad, even though my lungs were burning pretty good for some reason.  Just kept it short and headed home.

coming together

Things are finally coming together for next year.  Oh what a great feeling to have, especially now that I am going to start the process of becoming reacquainted with my bike.

The Bike

3 more days before next season starts!!  Long miles and painful gym workouts here I come!

Motivation

Who would have thought that not exercising for 2.5 weeks would actually make you that much more motivated to train.  Especially, when you consider that the weather is only going to get worse from here on out.  So all that I have to look forward to is delightful misery out in the cold for hours on end or sweat stained torturous hours inside the garage riding on the trainer.  But the more I sit on my the butt the more I can't wait to start torturing myself.  That is just another confirmation that there is something wrong with me.

Almost time to ride again!!!

Training

This is the time of year where it is important to start thinking about what your cycling goals are going to be for the coming year.

What races do you want to win?

What races do you want to do?

Do you want to upgrade?

Do you want to be more competitive?

These goals will be different everyone. It is also important to think about how the last season went for you.

What were the highlights?

Are you happy with how it all turned?

What could you have done differently to make it an even better season?

So now you have looked at the previous season and you have thought about the upcoming season. The next thing to start thinking about is, how can you improve on last season so you can reach your goals for the upcoming season.

With big goals come big plans. Big is of course a relative term for everyone but I define Big as the couple of goals that you are willing to work all season for. In order to feel satisfied with your season you have to know that you did everything you could have done to accomplish these goals.

This brings up the very important topic of training.

If you are thinking about devoting a good amount of time to racing your bike this coming season a coach would be a worthy investment.



If you have never had a coach before it is very difficult to garner the information that you need, in order to put together a training plan that will help you accomplish your goals. A coach not only has the experience but they can also be the knowledge 3rd party who saves you from yourself in order to keep you on track. A good training plan makes sure that the time training is actually making you faster and it takes out the guess work (time is money). That is not to say it takes the fun out of riding your bike. A training plan is tailored to what you want to get out of it.



All that being said if anyone would like to talk about some coaching options feel free to contact me.

this is what cross is about

kai 

Cyclocross Baby

Everyone should try to make it out to the Velopark tomorrow morning for some Cyclross racing and beer drinking.  Stu is racing at 11:30 am!!!!  Lets go have some fun at other peoples expense!!!!

Snake River Handicap

Sign up for the race this Sat!!!  Support Gary's race and drink some beer afterwards.  I am willing to make this intersting if we don't win.  Place your bets on the line and we will see what happens!

ps if nothing else it will be a good time on and off the bike

another gone

http://www.ktvb.com/news/magicvalley/stories/ktvbn-aug0909-twin_falls_bicycle_semi.c4102fae.html

How about assault!

http://www.idahostatesman.com/newsupdates/story/839310.html
 
So there was another bike rider hit by a car.  At least this time the driver was charged.  He got inatentive driving.  I fail to see how it can't at least be considered assault.  Just because you are hitting someone with your car instead of your fist you get inattentive driving.  So the next time I go punch somebody in the face I should just ask to get a ticket for not watching what I was doing....

some more crap

I am not sure about any of you guys but I am getting sick of seeing news stories about cyclist getting sited.
 
http://www.idahostatesman.com/newsupdates/story/836497.html
 
Now this is somewhat of a weird issue, puttin aside that it is kind of stupid to post all this stuff about cyclist tickets when we could be posting all the drivers tickets and add 20 pages to the statesman.
 
So here is the pedestrian law concerning pedestrian signals.
 
-------------------
 

TITLE 49

MOTOR VEHICLES

CHAPTER 8

SIGNS, SIGNALS AND MARKINGS

49-803.Pedestrian-control signals. Whenever a pedestrian-control signal showing the words "Walk" or "Wait" or "Don't Walk" is in place, the signal shall indicate the following:

(1)  Flashing or Steady "Walk". A pedestrian facing the signal may proceed across the highway in the direction of the signal, but shall yield the right-of-way to vehicles lawfully within the intersection at the time the signal is first shown.

(2)  Flashing or Steady "Don't Walk" or "Wait". No pedestrian shall start to cross the highway in the direction of the signal, but any pedestrian who has partially completed crossing shall proceed to a sidewalk or safety island while the "Don't Walk" or "Wait" signal is showing.

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Here is what the circumstances are when you are riding a bike on the sidewalk.
 

TITLE 49

MOTOR VEHICLES

CHAPTER 7

PEDESTRIANS AND BICYCLES

49-721.Bicycles on sidewalks. (1) A person operating a bicycle upon and along a sidewalk, or across a highway upon and along a crosswalk, shall yield the right-of-way to any pedestrian, and shall give an audible signal before overtaking and passing a pedestrian or another bicyclist.

(2)  A person shall not operate a bicycle along and upon a sidewalk or across a highway upon and along a crosswalk, where the use of bicycles is prohibited by official traffic control devices.

(3)  A person operating a vehicle by human power, or operating a motorized wheelchair or an electric personal assistive mobility device upon and along a sidewalk, or across a highway upon and along a crosswalk, shall have all the rights and duties applicable to a pedestrian under the same circumstances.

 

------------------

 

The moral of the story is not to ride on the sidewalk.  While riding on the road a bike is considered, mostly, a motor vehicle (except for stop signs and lights, which are treated as yeilds and stop signs accordingly).

 

I people everyday breaking laws on their bikes and a lot of times it isn't the people who are seriouse about it.  I think that we are forgetting that feeling of total fredom that we get from ridig a bike. The you can go anywhere and do anything feeling.  It would be a shame to lose such a thing but it is also a shame to not be able to put the blame of all these accidents on the drivers who lack the skills and care to responsibly drive their vehicles.  So watch your ass and do what is right.