Dog + Bike = Awesome.

Bryan and Kaia from Foxwood Films on Vimeo.

Mans best Friend. 'Nuff said. 

Real men roll pink.

I believe he can fly, I believe he can touch the sky. Photo credit: TDW Sport 

The last time Zdenek Stybar won a rainbow jersey in cyclocross Specialized came out with a pink Crux for him to ride the following season. His version was customized with rainbow stripes but you could still get basically the same all over pink bike and it was awesome. Here's hoping the big S has something up their sleeve for '15 to commemorate his latest championship. Baby blue? Laker Purple? Flo yellow? The possibilities are endless...

Gettin' some Z's.

2014 Zone Two and Zing Supreme - Doing Road Different from Kona Bikes on Vimeo

Kona has never been one to follow the crowd. I've always had a soft spot for their bikes and their ethos.  For over 25 years they'be been making bikes their way. Already a know MTB brand, they were also one of the only brands I remember making true cross bikes in the early 2000's when it was just barely getting popular here. The Jake the Snake model was a solid bike and won more than its fair share of domestic races on a number of levels. They've carried that thought process through ever since and are still making some great bikes, with cross still being a lead category. Their love of dirt carries over to the road and this video is a cool edit of some dirt/all road friendly bikes taking advantage of some amazing looking scenery (what else would I expect in Hawaii...) and some fun riding in a decidedly relaxed style. Even the baggy kit works when you see it in this light. Take a look for yourself. 

Perfect timing.

Steebs had enough time to make out with his Crux and still give the classic victory salute as Sven rues his last lap slip ups from behind.

Zdenek Stybar had the cyclocross world wondering all season what his plans for the world championships were. He played coy throughout the season as to whether or not he'd be racing in today's big race in Hoogerheide. He had ridden well in a number of world cup races many times playing the aggressor, but seemed to be having more fun doing supercross style jumps than racing for wins. When he finally announced the week before last that he would indeed make an appearance in the big race it set the cx world abuzz. You see, since he turned his focus on road racing and a pursuit of spring classics glory and cut back on his CX ambitions things just haven't been the same. His classic battles with Belgians Sven Nys and Neils Albert are the stuff of legend were sorely missed...until today.

That's all she wrote for Sven - Stybar stayed on and Nyes had to dismount, he never got close after that.

The racing was vicious and just over half way through the race it became apparent that our prayers were going to be answered and we were going to be treated to another battle royale between Nys and Stybar. They traded places at the front a number of times - sometimes on purpose and sometimes on accident. Heading into the last lap the crowd was at a fever pitch and Sven led them through the start/finish line with Stybar hot on his tail.  About a third of the way though Stybar powered through on Nys' left and put the current champ in discomfort to say the least. Sven was having trouble getting back on his wheel but was still within reach until the turn shown above. It was a muddy, sweeping, slightly off camber left that Stybar was able to ride through and Sven - very uncharacteristically - took a bad line in his haste to close the gap. He had to dismount and by the time he righted the ship Stybar was gone and had time to prepare his victory salute. 

SC WC Podium - Stybar, Nyes, Pauwels.

It was a great race with Pauwels coming in a solid third and filling out the Belgian contingent on the podium. Nys as always was gracious in defeat and Stybar was a deserving winner and looked great in his 3rd rainbow jersey in the last 5 years. 

Lucky folks in the crowd. 

All in all it was a great race as expected. All the best were there and the two (arguably) best CX racers in the last decade gave the crowd, and the rest of us, a true treat. Stybar is looking strong and it bodes well for his chances in the spring classics in the coming months. Here's hoping he can improve on his 6th place in last years Paris-Roubaix and the rest of the monuments this spring.

There will be mud.

Zdenek Stybar will make an appearance at the UCI CX Worlds - Photo credit: Dan Seaton/VeloNews.jpg

It's time. It's world champs time in the UCI Cyclocross series this weekend. Going to be some great racing with all of the big boys in attendance. Even Styby has confirmed that he'll be present and with the recent rains it should be nice and muddy for the weekend as the course in Hoogerheide just loves to hold water for days after a heavy deluge. The UCI youtube channel will hopefully be showing the racing live here in the states, but it's not a sure thing due to the Universal sports deal. If not you can always try Sports-livezz, Procyclinglive or Cyclingfans. 

Whatever you do make sure you find some way to watch one of the greatest sporting events of the year, and then you can watch that other big sporting event happening this weekend... whatever that may be. 

The beauty and innocence of childhood - through a go pro?

  

Helmet cams are everywhere these days. They catch the best and the worst of bicycling, skateboarding, action sports and pretty much any other type of activity you can think of. I have seen some amazing footage of all different types of cycling on the net, especially mountain biking, but I can honestly say I've never watched a P.O.V. video that put a bigger smile on my face than this one did. This youngster of only four years of age is named Malcom. His father Dan set him up with a helmet cam and then took him down Hellion at Highland MTB Park in Maine. Apparently it was the first time Malcom had tackled the first ramp, and his joy and pride at doing it comes through loud and clear for us all to enjoy. This kid is going to be a ripper for sure, already shreding some serious trail on a 16" rigid hardtail BMX bike. Wouldn't be surprised to see this kid on a World Cup podium someday. Thanks to Mainehaole on youtube for sharing his experience with the rest of us. 

If you ain't cheatin'....

Why Vince McMahon? - read the cracked article and you'll understand. Photo credit: WWE

You ain't tryin'. I came across this article on Cracked about 5 of the dumbest ways people/teams have won (big!) in sports. While well worth the read, it is a hilariously sad tribute to how - for some folks - winning is all that matters and the ends justify the means no matter how gross a reinterpretation or stretching of the rules it might take. How does this apply to us? Well take a look at number four on the list. It re-tells the sad tale of the UK's Philip Hindes and his brazen flopping to get a restart in the 2012 Olympic team sprint.

Hindes in the middle of his floparoo - Photo credit: PA

Hindes was the lead rider in the 3 man team sprint crew followed by Jason Kenny and anchored by Sir Chris Hoy. As he came out of the block he started to wobble, flailed for a second and then fell down the track. The Olympics use UCI rules for the event and as such, any rider/team falling during a team sprint by mechanical or accidental means is awarded a restart.

This is where things get sticky... when asked about the fall immediately after the race Hindes professed the following “We were saying if we have a bad start we need to crash to get a restart. I just crashed, I did it on purpose to get a restart, just to have the fastest ride. I did it. So it was all planned, really.” - Insert loud record scratching sound here. 

Even though the Olympic committee heard these words and knew about the shenanigans the team was allowed to take the restart and went on to win the gold. Immediately after the race Hindes was asked about it again in another BBC interview stating “I just did it to get the restart. My first wasn’t the greatest so I thought to get the restart.”

Once word started to get around the British Olympic team issued a laughable response to the whole issue saying that due to English being Hindes second launguage (He was born in Germany) he misunderstood the question and that the fall was completely accidental after all. For his part, Hindes changed his story to "No, I just went out of the gate and just lost control, just fell down...My back wheel slipped and totally lost control and I couldn't handle the bike any more and just crashed." 

He went on to give another interview proclaiming in clearly understandable English how it was his inability to understand English clearly which caused him to say that he had crashed on purpose and that it was all planned in advance by his team if he started poorly. Click the photo of Phil below to watch for yourself.

Hindes keeping a straight face. - Screen grab via: The Telegraph

After watching that video it is clear that his near complete mastery of the English language would have been thrown off by the question "what happened?". 

But I digress, most will probably say no harm no foul because the Brits were obviously the better team as evidenced by their prodigious haul of medals that summer. For me however it's always a question of integrity, of winning with panache. Not winning by getting away with stretching a rules. It reminds me of the Piti principle that the Velominati keepers subscribe to:

"The Piti Principle - Punishment for violating the spirit of the law: A model of punishment wherein a competitor is sanctioned for abusing the system while still technically staying within the guidelines."

If this is not an example of that I don't know what is.