Ironman Louisville 2016

Ok,Ironman Louisville 2015 is safely behind us. As usual the Goose Creek Cycle team experienced the race from the sidelines. As bike shop guys we experience the race a little differently from those of you who were racing or cheering on your friends and family members.

The Shop rats (Lane, Levi and Cam) set up their annual "lemonade" stand in the Goose Creek tent while the mechanics nervously check split times of the bikes we built or serviced going into the race.  While we like to see our riders do well,  the main thing we are looking for on our little electronic devices is even split times.    We are equally happy with a rider who's average pace is 14MPH at every split as with a rider whose pace is a solid 22MPH.  What we are looking for is the dreaded "Long Split".   The Long Split is that one where there was clearly a problem.   A suddenly drop from a 20MPH pace to a 10MPH pace screams mechanical problem.   And mechanical problem means either a crash,  or we made a mistake. 

This year we continued our clean streak.  To date, none of the bikes (at least that we know of) that we have either built for or serviced going into the race have had any major mechanical problems.  We like to think that this is a testament to the almost neurotic testing and retesting we do on bikes especially when someone has flown half way across the country or world to get here for this one ride. 

But something new happened at the 2015 Louisville Ironman.   This year the Shop Rats moms showed up and put their heads together and issued a challenge.   In past,  I had actually been forbidden from doing this race on account of the time it would take to train for it.   But now with the kids in school and a little extra time in the margins of our lives there is a possibility of getting back back to racing.  

Now keep in mind,  I am not a triathlete.  I have done one sprint triathlon.  If you look back far enough into history you will see that I have a background in 24 hour mountain bike racing,  so the distance here is maybe not as daunting as it might otherwise be,  but lately my focus has been on light commuting, beer drinking and snack cakes.  So with the exception of the fact that my extra layer of blubber helps me float a little better in the swim,  I am singularly unprepared for an Ironman.  

Truth be told,  I probably wont actually do it,  but I am putting this post up on the shop blog just so there is a public record that I said I would so now maybe I will have to.   I have a year,  so I am starting with baby steps.   Baby step one was to take a bunch of steroids to try to get rid of this terrible case of Poison Ivy I contracted clearing trails at Briar Hill.  Steroids can only help right?   Also,  and mainly because I was told that the chlorine would help dry up my poison ivy,  I got in the local pool for 20 minutes this morning before work.

So there you have it.   Day 1 training:  Don't drown for 20 minutes.  Mission Accomplished.

Urban Short track Race #1

Well the first race in the series is in the books. Well almost in the books, I still have to put up the results, but the racing is in the books anyway. The weather held out for us perfectly, and it seems like a good time was had by all. Congrats to Nick Barbieri(Backwoods Racing Project) and Debbie Baker (Bishops Bicycles) who won the Mens and Womens Pro/1 catagorys.

Despite some technical diffuculties on the back end and some vandals playing with course markings between races, we have received generally positive feedback and the serries will roll into its next race on December 3.

We will have a couple of changes for the next race, the biggest one is the way we do timing. This race we used a standart Criterium timing which works great when you have a large peleton of riders. As it turns out, the whole system breaks down when you have riders spread over the course. For the upcoming race we will use a timing format typically used in 12/24 hour races. You will have 30 minutes to do as many laps as possible. If you come through the start finish at a time less than 30 minutes you will be expected to go out again. Over 30 minutes and you are finished. This should clear up a lot of confusion. So our appologise to the riders who we accidentally made do an extra lap, (a list which actually includes or Cat3 mens winner), but we should have it fixed for the next event.

We will also be putting award cerimonies on the schedule for next race so we won't miss any of our finishers as we try to do improptu awards.

Anyone who has other suggestions for us, we welcome your comments, this was just the first time out and we have a lot to improve on, but at the very least this was a good jumping off point. See you all in December.

Local races are fun

Just rediscovered how cool it is to race locally. The Apex Mini Triathlon was this weekend and I talked myself into it despite that fact that I don't swim, I only run when chased, and I just sold my road bike. But only in a local race can you convert your mountain bike to a road bike and head out just to enjoy the day and try not to drown.


What I discovered is that I had forgotten how cool it is to race locally. Aside from being able to show up with crazy rigs and be under trained, you find that you know a good portion of the people there. This is not because it is the same people following a circuit that you have been on all year, but because they are friends of friends. People you work with, guys you saw on a club ride once or people you just happen to run into in your every day life. So thanks to the gang at Oldham County Parks and Recreation for putting on this event again, and thanks to my wife for convincing me to come out and do the race. I will be back again next year and next time I will be able to swim.

For those of you who are interested the Photo above in a Niner EMD9 fitted with 700X23 tires. You can do this? Yes. I was a little unsure at first if the rims would be a little wide to accomodate a true road tire, but they beaded up just nicely. If you try it though you will want to make a note that the bike has considerably less pedal clearance this way, so don't pedal through the corners as you might otherwise.

UK cycling team scores big wins in season opener

Goose Creek Cycle is proud to have supported the University of Kentucky Cycling team for the past few years, and it looks like this season is going to be another great one. This weekend was their season opener at Murray State and they guy pulled down the win on both days of racing despite a screw up with one of our distribuertytors wherin all their race wheels showed up as tubulars instead of clinchers. Anyway, I have taken the liberty of copying a portion of team captain Drew Lavey's race repoet below:

Murray State Collegiate Race Weekend
Saturday, February 27, 2010
After a night in a tightly packed hotel room full of 7 riders, 7 bikes, and all the appropriate gear we rolled out of “bed” and enjoyed a nice breakfast provided by Whole Foods of Lexington Green. We headed to the race course of the day, which was a relatively flat 2 lap course totaling 32 miles. After a very short warm-up, our race started with a rolling start. For the first lap we sat in the peloton waiting to make our move. The first lap was controlled by the Purdue team and the second lap the IU team took a turn keeping pace but in the last 5 miles our team took control. We picked up the pace substantially which strung out the peloton. We had our team out front with Ian Baker, Scott Ashcraft, and Patrick Sims taking turns pushing the pace. With less than a mile to go there was a crash splitting the front group in half. Then the other riders in our group started to try to make their moves for the win but Luke Avery and I covered everything they threw out. With about an eighth of a mile to go Luke began the lead out for me. After he pulled off there were two guys in front of me but I new I had it. I jumped on the second rider’s wheel. The first rider ran out of gas as we entered the final 100 meters then I kicked it in crossing the finish line inches in front of the IU rider.
With the first race of the season I was a little skeptical to see where my and the rest of our team’s fitness would be but as I expected it was there. We worked flawlessly together for our first race making the rest of the season look very promising.

Sunday, February 28, 2010
Sunday morning we had our criterium. The race consisted of a 6 corner ¾ -1 mile loop for 30 minutes. The first 10 minutes of the race were pretty quick with the riders at the front trying to weed out the tired/newer riders. After about 15 minutes the race started to slow down a little bit. Our team took a few turns at the front trying to position ourselves for another win. With 5 laps to go that pace really picked up again with Patrick Sims and Ian Baker taking some good turns at the front while Luke Avery and I sat back a little bit waiting for the right move. Going into the final 3 laps Luke and I were sitting third wheel, we held our positions still waiting for the right time to strike. In the last lap with three turns to go a few riders started to pick it up. We covered them and held our position after the last turn we knew we had it again. I began the lead out for Luke with just a few meters to Luke took control and sealed another win for us. For this race we took first and second finishing a perfectly planned and implemented weekend for racing

Spring is here and the wrenches are getting HOT

Spring is here?

Wait didn't it snow today?

And Yesterday?

And the day before?

Ok if you are a basketball fan you think it is still winter, but if you are a cyclist, you can smell spring and the road is calling. What this means is that it will be an act of sheer will-power to put down the wrench and get out on the shop ride tomorrow morning.

Things are starting to get crazy here at Goose Creek.

The team guys are all dialing in their bikes and we are building as fast as we can. Our riders on the UK cycling team have their first race this weekend and the guys are switching over from winter training parts to race rigs. Our new start up off road endurance team is putting the final touches on the sponsorship roster. Trainer rides and gym work are transitioning into epic road rides and weekend road trips to find trail frozen enough to be fast.

On top of all this prep work we just had a couple shipments of Demo bikes arrive from Niner bikes. The new bikes are getting pieced together slowly in between builds for customers and team riders. I had always had respect for the things Niner was doing, but the full scope of the how nice these frames are had not hit me until I got my hands of the frames and started building. If you have not seen one of these in person yet you need to come on down and get your hands on them. Cutomers bikes are the priority right now so the demos are not all built up, but we are getting there. Look for pictures of some cool custom builds to shop up shortly.

Ok, enough babbling I am building wheels and need to get back to it. After all, spring is here and there are bikes to be built.

USGP Derby City

Given that he is the CFO of a bike shop, it seemed only logical that he start racing. So this weekend shop mascot and Cookie Finding Officer Lane entered his first race. Now there is no going half way for this kid so he started out at one of the biggest Cyclocross races in the nation, Derby City USGP.


After a considerable amount of effort trying to corral him away from the big boy course he settled into his grove on the junior course which was complete with a couple of run ups, a mud pit (bikewash run off) and a staircase run-up.

A couple of warm up laps and he was off to the obligatory port-a-pot visit.


And then the start.

The first lap held some excitement with a three-kid pileup that blocked traffic right from the start. After a short pause Lane was able to take the inside line and get around. He blew through the Cannondale tent and was out on course.

As the only one with training wheels Lane was at a bit of a disadvantage on the back section because as it turns out when you are on an off camber slope, the training wheels try to push you over rather than hold you up. It is because of this section that his pit crew believes that he so narrowly missed the overall win.

He blasted through the mud pit and dismounted for the staircase where he did have to receive a little outside assistance lugging the bike up the stairs. Back on the bike he headed out for lap 2.




With an uneventful lap 2 under his belt, his race was over, but he was not going to stop for something as silly as everyone else being done. Like a true champion he headed out on a victory lap so while everyone else was at the award ceremony Lane was turning a few extra.



Eventually we had to drag him from the course, but if you ask him today what he wants to do, you are sure to get his new standard answer.

"I want to do cyclocross"