Racing Ralph’s.
Great all round and fast in all but the very worst mud.

October is a great time to go, weather was spot on when I was there.
Hazard county into porcupine rim is a must (there’s a forum member on here who snapped the frame of his rental Ibis Mojo down there, but I won’t point fingers).
IMO the rest of the Moab trails aren’t up to much in comparison.

Oddly the best trail we found was a random unnamed and unmarked trail. As we were heading back to Denver we had popped into poison spider bikes in the Vail valley, just off the I70 and they recommended their local trails on the south facing slope of the valley, they were quality.

On a septarate note you should go to ‘Big ring’ cycles in Golden, Denver. They’re bike fitting process is called FIST. Fisted in big ring.

Nice ideas, cheers chaps.

Intense 6.6
Couldn’t get on with it.

Me too, bought exactly the same forks and managed to find a discount code which took them to £254. Bargain and delivered within 2 days.
Top marks.

Was up there on Tuesday and again on Saturday, trails are officially closed but passable in the most part.
Its been warm in the North West/N.Wales today, so I’d expect after another windy warm day tomorrow the majority will be gone.

Shop and cafe open as usual.

No, running a tapered. Was looking at hopes but not sure what size I need? Any tips

Something like this?
http://www.gomadic.com/garmin-edge-500-lithium-portable-battery-charger.html

I don’t know what all the fuss about eating horse is, apparently the burgers that have horse meat in them that they’ve tested have been very low in fat, they have been high in shergar though.

I’ll be riding my Scandal 29er, 100mm forks and running it with a 1×10 setup.
Cant wait.
I’m going to come out and say it, you know, to put the pressure on for me to train properly. Aiming for sub 9 (weather dependent).

Tabata on the turbo/gym bike. Short and very sharp and keeps your interest in cycling until your spare time increases and you can get back out more.

Depends on what mix of agents you had, your anaesthetist should have told you?
You’ll probably have had propofol as your main agents and you may well have had muscle relaxant too. (eg rocuronium).
There are always risks of after affects but the likelihood of that continuing in the medium term are very low, however there is still a risk.
Upshot is it depends, no definite answer as to when it will stop. If you’re still concerned speak to hospital.

I have both, but use my rollers more now. I prefer just being able to get straight on without the faff of putting the wheel on the turbo (lazy, I know).
Rollers are easy to use and you’ll get the hand of it quickly and you should be fine at the end of the first session (if you are a decent cyclist).

I presume you’re starting at cat.4.
Take care if its just cat.4 only, there will be some numpts who cant stay upright on a bike or hold the wheel.
Watch of for the semi-inevitable crash leading up to the sprint finish.

Is it a road race or a closed circuit crit? It would make a difference to my tactics.

For a crit (esp if its cat.4) I’d be tempted to have a few attacks off the front to see how strong the rest of the field is. If its cat.4 only then the field is unlikely to be super strong. I rode off the front of a cat.4 crit race relatively easily, where no one was too keen to bridge the gap.

A Road Race will be tactically different than a crit. Is it a cat 3/4 or 2/3/4 race?
If its a 2/3/4 just try and stick in the main bunch and use the race as experience, as in all likelihood it will be fast (cat.2s make a big difference compared to 3/4 only races).
If its 3/4 only, try and stay near the front (top 10), you will need to be aware that small breaks are likely to get away, whether they stay away is up to the actions of the main group, Some advice would be to sit in and not work, but at 3/4 racing I say get stuck in and do some work at reeling in breaks etc…. as long as you aren’t knackering yourself out. Most flat races at 3/4 level will end in a sprint finish either from a breakaway group or main bunch. Position yourself near the front (which you should be already) and be in a position where you are a few wheels back coming into the final corner. Forget the organised leadouts when you watch the tour, sprints in 3/4 racing is much more chaotic than that. If you have a strong turn of speed then you’ll naturally end up near the front. Sprints aren’t that fast at cat 3/4 level. Avoid being mid pack at this point as there’s always some near misses or a proper crash.
If its hilly then good luck as the pack is very unlikely to stay together.

One of the things that I wasn’t prepared for when I started out was the internal politics that goes on in races. Be aware that the atmosphere can be very highly charged, more so that MTB or cross races, in my opinion there are more people in road races who think they’ve got a chance to win that you get racing MTB, as it can come down to a sprint finish. There tends to be a fair bit of shouting and swearing and sometimes pushing and shoving. Just keep your head down and follow the wheel of someone who looks confident on the bike. Try to keep off the brakes when you are close to others in the bunch, this will annoy the hell out of others and get you shouted at.
Watch out for the “I’ve been doing this for 20 years” guys that are usually more vocal with their instructions and try to boss the group around or try to police it. There’s always someone more experienced than you in the group but don’t think they are the be all and end all.

That’s turned into a mini essay already.

p.s. stick to the MTB its more fun!