Road Racing - Live

The Vuelta a España and the UCI Road World Championships which raced this month, showed live on the Internet. Our cable television package offers two ESPNs, one Fox Soccer Network, the Speed Channel and the NFL.

Three of them show football (soccer) all the time, one focuses on auto racing and the last on American football. One of the ESPNs varies its football programming when there's a tennis Open, a golfing championship and the Tour de France.

The Tour de France is the third most-watched sporting event in the world; it's broadcast live each day when that day's stage has two hours of cycling left, then comes a half-hour recap at night.

Cycling's other races get no coverage on the sports channels that are available to us.

An Internet search quickly turned up results for live broadcasts, including free ones. A website called cyclingfans.com posted several to many links to websites which were showing the race live. The quality was really very nice! For my wobbly, so-called 'high-speed' connection, the quality was so nice, that the real offering from the broadcast channels must have been pretty exceptional.

I really appreciated the efforts of the folks behind the websites who are such devoted fans of the sport, for making this info easily available.

Mirror, Mirror ...

A Useful Addition

An addition I've always found necessary when riding is a rear view mirror. You're continuously aware of what's ahead of you and what's behind—all in one glance.

There are a number of mirrors which mount in a variety of ways. Some fit into the hollow handle bar, or clamp on somewhere at the front of the bar.

The one I have on my bike attaches with a velcro strap and it seems the manufacturers chose the strongest velcro ever invented, to ensure this mirror stays attached. It has become part of the handlebar and is neither cumbersome nor intrusive. I've found them all to be like that.

What To Wear?

I decided to purchase a cycling jersey, for the first time in my life. Up 'til now, the customary T-shirt or polo jersey was the standard riding wear, however, when I began to make plans to participate in a 50-mile ride, I sought to prepare myself to be as physically comfortable as possible. This suddenly made Tees and polos unsuitable.

Following this year's Tour de France made me aware of a Colorado-based company called Pearl Izumi, which manufactures cycling apparel. I looked them up on the Internet and noted the type of material used — 100% Polyester. Great! Everybody on the planet makes and sells these so I figured once I got a sports jersey that was 100% polyester, I'd be a happy cyclist. Not so. I quickly learned that not all 100% polyesters are created equal.

All of the jerseys in the sports stores I visited were marked 100% on the little white label, but they were all remarkably different in texture. One of them made me drip with perspiration by just looking at it on the rack! They were also very inexpensive, suspiciously too inexpensive. So I went back to the Internet and looked at the variety from Pearl Izumi on Amazon. I chose this one:

This is the Women's Symphony Cycling Jersey. I loved this colour and ordered one. In fact, I got another type of blue, not as gorgeous as this one, but still very nice-looking. This one's also marked "100% Polyester" on the little white label, but unlike the others in the stores, has a soft breathable texture. It's very well made and fits perfectly. It really does wick perspiration away from you, keeping you cool as you concentrate on battling the hills.

The Symphony cost me US$25.00 — this was pleasantly surprising because I made a trip to a couple bike shops and the jerseys there cost US$63.00 and up. Of course, they were all printed up like mad, with logos and team names.

Speaking of teams, Izumi also has this one:

I love it! This design belongs to my favourite team. Ironically, I particularly like that their name and sponsors' logos do not appear on the jersey. I'd be somehow very reluctant to wear a replica of a team's exact outfit. Compared to the Symphony I bought, this design costs US$89.95!

These days I've been wondering how come it costs more than three times as much to buy a garment with a team's design on it. Unless this comes down by 70% in price, I'm not sure I could afford it coming anytime soon to a mailbox near me.

(Note: The manufacturer's sizes and Amazon's "Merchant's Sizing Chart" are different. For the correct fit, order using the manufacturer's sizes.)

The Trek 7100 Hybrid

A hybrid is a cross between a road bike and a mountain bike. The wheels are large like a road bike's but it's designed to travel on trails, which customary road bikes cannot handle. So the hybrid tyres are not pencil-thin and the handlebar's angle is movable.

The 7100 is a super bike! There are a million things right with this bike. Let's consider them all.

The saddle is very comfortable - no need to elaborate there. The suspension (called Rapid Suspension Technology — RST) is smooth, making for a fine ride and the location of the handlebar in relation to the seat is perfect. My previous bike is a Trek (820) but the seat and handlebar are not placed apart ideally so I spend most of the time feeling that I'm reaching out for the handlebars.

The handlebars on the hybrid are also angled perfectly, unlike my experience with the Trek 820, which gives the wrists a twisted sensation.

The ride from the 820 is still a good ride but now that the 7100 has showed up, it is really quite a contrast. It's also lighter in weight and the root-beer-and-white colour scheme is beautiful.

I'm looking forward to traversing many miles on this bike.

Soft Pedaling

I took my bike out for a walk yesterday. It will last very long if it continues to get such kind treatment. Actually, I do plan on caring for it very well. My intention is to cover alot of ground — starting in the near future — mainly planted on the saddle, which is super comfortable by the way.

The Course

The course was a hill, deceptively gentle-looking, until you experienced it by bike. It is two-and-one-eighth miles in length with two-thirds of it at a 30-degree incline (approximately). The remaining flat one-third is questionably positioned at the very end. Perhaps that's the reward for pushing uphill relentlessly for half-hour. This was the first time I've tried biking up that route. Well, technically it's the second but going just a few yards at the base of the hill 8+ years ago on a very heavy bike doesn't count as a proper first try.

A pro cyclist gave me some tips prior to attempting the ride. He said to break up the hill into three parts; ride more slowly than I intend to; ride the first third, come back down; and so on. YouTube and cycling websites offered great suggestions and demonstrations on how to climb, so I felt very prepared.

When I got there, I completely forgot about breaking up the hill into parts and tried to cycle up all in one go. Actually, pedaling in-between mad vehicular traffic on an evening prior to a public holiday had knocked out all my memorized tips and tricks, but for the one to ride in the slowest gears. Yet, it seemed I still needed gears lower than 1 and 1.

At any rate, it turned out well. Considering that I rode the steepest part of the road most of the time (the inner rim against the hillside) and was still dealing with a bout of sinusitis, I'd say making it up two-and-one-sixteenth miles was a good result. And I only walked the bike about five times.