Just a quick update: I’m jumping into the second leg of the Ride on Washington today. I’ll be doing my best to live-tweet antics on @Cyclocosm, and, as an added bonus, if you chip in $20 of the $500 I promised to raise, I’ll do a mini-rant cast on the topic if your choice!
Uncategorized Archive
Cycling Organization Press Release Generator
This form broke a few years after publication, and in July 2021 I disabled it completely. May it serve as a reminder producing spoofed content was once considered funny. I had some thoughts on cycling—on the honest-to-goodness racing of bicycles—earlier this week. But dang if I didn’t get a little distracted by the bellowing and…
How to Succeed in Bike Racing Without Really Trying
In 2005, Tom Boonen’s ascendancy was nothing short of meteoric, and his failure to maintain that level of success since has prompted no shortage of discussion. While I was one of the first to suggest that the Belgian might just be the first of a new generation rather than the next Merckx, I’ve also been…
Sanremo, Strength, and Tactics
For a guy who made obsessing over aerodynamics and other tech geek foibles into the development and marketing norm in the sport, Gerard Vroomen is surprisingly attuned to the sloppy, cut-and-run realities of professional bike racing. After some muttering from fans following Sanremo, and some atypically direct criticism of RadioShack by Philippe Gilbert, Vroomen put…
The Spanish Cycling Bubble
20% unemployment. Massive cutbacks in public funding. A looming credit downgrade. There’s no question that “La Crisis” marks a major threat to the fortunes of the Spanish peloton. But if recent history is any indication, the increasing internationalization of cycling will force a near-total collapse of the Spanish peloton in the next few years, if…
Cyclocross Clinchers: Pressures, Sealants, and Tube Variations
Wonderful for most cycling applications, the humble clincher tire does not perform well under the rigors of cyclocross racing. While I’ve discussed this before, there are a few things I didn’t bring up in the previous piece that definitely deserve mention. The first thing that ought to come up in this discussion—as readers have noted—is…
Tubeless For Cyclocross – The Complete Saga
A little more than a year ago, I was riding through the local trail system, over rugged MTB terrain, entirely unhindered by the fact that there was a ‘cross bike between my legs. I was railing loose gravel corners, and clawing my way up steep, bony trails, enjoying plush compliance and plier-like grip. I was…
On "Cyclocross" Clinchers
If you’ve been following the Cyclocosm Tumblr at all, you’ve probably seen a few interesting parts failures over the past few weeks. But today’s post is less about a specific failure and more about a broken philosophy: the idea that any clincher with knobs on it is somehow race-appropriate componentry for cyclocross. It’s Not All…
The Model Bike Race
There are times—generally a non-GC stage after the first mountain/time trial battle of the Tour de France—where I’ll concede that cycling isn’t the most exciting sport in the world. But races like this year’s Tour of Flanders make the few days that drag entirely worthwhile. While there were countless things to love, for me, the…
The Radio-Free Classics
Despite the fact that they are not “true” classics, this past weekend’s racing at the Omloop and KBK marked the first time that (to my day-job addled knowledge) trade teams have taken each other on in a high-profile one-day event without the use of radio earpieces. And while I hesitate to view a single weekend…