Should we legally HAVE to wear a helmet? Uh...nope

I’ve seen a rider on the bike trail a few times who wears a motocross-style helmet. It has a built-in front piece that guards the mouth, jaw and lower face, but it has no windshield, just open air for his nose and eyes. I got to thinking about how he’d be more protected if he did a face plant off his road bike, than other riders with the typical road cycling helmet, which doesn’t protect the face. I’ve always believed helmets should be worn when riding a bike as a way to lower the chances of getting a cracked skull or brain damage in a crash. But this guy’s helmet offers face protection, an extra measure almost no road bike riders have. I have to admit, I wouldn’t want to wear this style of helmet, and would balk if it were ever a legal requirement. It made me rethink my stance on the whole helmet requirement issue. I have supported a bill in California to legally require all cyclists to wear helmets. It’s similar to how the use of seatbelts in a car is already required to keep drivers and passengers in a crash from getting thrown around violently and often fatally.
But now I’m thinking, I wouldn’t want to be required to wear a motocross style helmet on my road bike because it offers more protection. I’m willing to risk a face-plant injury, because a helmet like that would feel bulky and like too much protection.
So hey, like a sleazy politician, I’ve changed my mind. Upon further review, I think it really should be a cyclist’s personal choice, not a legal requirement, of whether or not to wear a helmet. Cycling has its built-in risks, we all know that. But it really should be up to us how much risk protection we want to have on a ride, and whether we wear a helmet or not. So if we do get a skull fracture or a smashed up face because we didn’t wear a helmet, or at least a fully protective one, we can only blame ourselves. ‘Nuf said.

Hey legs, how ya doin’?
Every time I go out on a long ride, it doesn’t take too long for me to know how strongly, or not, I’m going to ride that day. There’s really no predicting how it’s going to go, and it boils down to one thing: How do the legs feel?
No doubt, if they feel strong and fresh, a nicely paced ride is in order.
But if they feel weak and lifeless, well, for me it’s just time to ride for base miles, and forget about pushing the pace.
This past week I had the notion of working on developing a strong cadence to maintain a pace of around 18 mph. I did three 51-mile rides in three days. The first was slowish with a 17 mph average speed, the second ride was really slow with a 15.5 mph average, and the third ride was in the middle – still pretty slow – at 16.1 mph.
All three rides had mushy feeling legs in common. Hate it when that happens! Most times my legs will spring back at some point in a series of rides. They’ll feel galvanized, steely and strong, and it’s not a problem to push the pace. But when they don’t feel strong, pushing the pace might happen for a little while, but then suddenly they're done. They have no reserve power, they’re only good for slower pedaling.
I’ve tried to say “Shut up legs,” a la Jens Voigt, to whip them out of sluggishness. Sometimes that works. But when they're drained of strength, and no amount of cracking the whip keeps them at an up-tempo pace for long. 
So for me it’s a welcome bonus on a ride when the legs feel strong and they have plenty of giddy-up.  It would happen more often if I rode every day, but I’m already lucky that I can fit two to three long rides in a per week into my schedule. 
So probably need to do more leg muscle workouts, right? Yeah, blah blah blah! I figure if my legs are feeling tired on a ride, just by putting miles on them in that state is workout enough. Yep, sounds good to me!

Working a riding schedule
As I write this, it’s 7 a.m. and I just saw four cyclist ride past my window, and one of them said, “Wake up early, get a couple hour ride, go back home and go to work.”
Which was funny, because that’s exactly what I was thinking of a few minutes earlier: What does it take to fit the riding you want to do into your work schedule?
I’m lucky, I’ve got a schedule where I work mostly late afternoons and evenings. That allows me to get a three and a half hour ride in without having to get up too early, which is pretty nice. But it’s not so easy if you have a 9-5 job. Then it means you have to get up crazy early to get in a good ride. And that can be tough. Still, it’s worth it, because even if the day at work is less than great, the overall day will be on the plus side if it started out with a ride. A ride is a great de-stresser, gets the tension out, lets the muscles air out, lets the mind relax. What better way to start work, physically and mentally refreshed?
I just had a day where I had to go to work in the early evening at about 5 o’clock. I had done rides the previous two days and so I had to ask myself if doing a third ride would just make me over-tired for work. But when the time came to either get ready to do a ride, or let it pass, I found myself doing my pre-ride routine of getting snacks and water to take along, pointing the bike at the front door in the living room, and putting on sunscreen. I did the ride, enjoyed it, came home and eventually went to work. And later, I was glad I rode my bike.
In fact, I can’t think of one time – well maybe when I’ve crashed, hit a squirrel, or gotten caught in pounding rain or hail – that I wished I hadn’t gone on a ride. But almost without fail, at the end of the ride, I’m very glad I went. You know that great post ride feeling, right? You're grounded, peaceful, and ready to handle any upcoming challenges. Can’t be beat.

Til next time, remember to strap on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then, keep the rubber side down, ride safely, and don’t forget to have a blast.
-- Mark Eric Larson

Road bike disc brakes? They're a-comin'...

There’s a debate among road cyclists over whether disc brakes are better for safety and performance than the long-used, traditional rim brakes.
Do they work better? Are they easy to maintain? Are they aerodynamic?
The answer to the first question has been pretty much established as a yes, particularly on wet roads, and in very hot weather.
And no doubt because the pro peloton regularly rides on wet roads and occasionally in ridiculously hot weather, the UCI, cycling’s governing body, is changing its rules. It will allow road bikes to have disc brakes in 2017.
Observers predict that not long after that, disc brakes will become standard on road bikes, just as they are on mountain bikes.
There is no shortage of logic to the change, though traditionalists are barking that it’s just not necessary, the good ol’ rim brakes work great. What’s not to like?
But it looks like disc brakes are the best technological answer to safely and efficiently slowing down carbon wheels, which are used by pros and pretty much everybody else these days.
The pro-disc crowd points out that carbon rims don’t provide a consistent braking surface, and when wet, just slip and slide and don’t slow wheels down at all when brakes are applied.
This is absolutely true. Not only is such a scenario a hair-raising experience, it can lead to a nasty crash. A ride I did in the rain a few years ago had a very steep descent, it seemed like I was literally riding down a wall of wet pavement. And even as I squeezed hard on my rim brakes, they slowed but couldn’t stop me. They squealed loudly in protest all the way down. Since I live in a dry climate this is almost a non-issue for me. But for riders who have to ride on wet roads on a routine basis, it’s a huge deal.
Aside from that, carbon rims also conduct heat and that’s a problem in hot weather. Rim brakes have been blamed for building up enough heat on carbon rims to blow up tires in the searing heat of the Tour of Qatar this year.
Heat-caused blown up tires is another unsafe scenario. The 2014 Amgen Tour of California had a stage that passed through mountains descending into the 110-degree-plus May heat of Palm Springs in Southern California. And while no tire blow-ups took place then from brakes overheating carbon rims, it was only luck that they didn’t. The winding descent into Palm Springs was fast and technical, and any riders having their tires explode then while riding curves at high speed and high heat, surely would have been hard pressed to keep from crashing.
But opinions pro and con on this still abound.
Here’s a good road test of a road bike with disc brakes, which answered a lot of questions I had. Check it out…

 
Ya just never know…
I’ve found when I go out on my go-to ride of 51 miles, an out and back, I never really know how it will go until after the first few miles. It’s then that I do a little inventory on two key indicators: My overall energy level, and how my legs feel. For me they kind of go together. But not always. It’s a little bit different every time.
Like sometimes my brain tells my legs to go, and they have pretty much nothing. They feel mushy, drained of strength. Then I can do one of two things: Listen to the legs and just ratchet down the pace. Or do a Jens Voigt, tell them to shut up and push them into a higher pace.
That sometimes works, sometimes not. I’ve found it usually only works when another rider passes me and I want to see if I can catch his/her wheel. Then, my brain is jolted with an energizing idea, the legs are told to go, forget about being listless, chase that rider.
Sometimes the legs respond and after an initial acceleration that blows away the cobwebs, they settle into a nice, faster pace. That pace can last for several miles and be enough to catch the rider.
Or, it can flame out. When that happens, the legs are drained of any power that may have been residing in the recesses of their muscles, and they back off.  Because they seriously got nothin’ left. Not gonna do it.
Other times, the legs feel fresh and strong for the whole ride, no whipping into shape necessary.
This past week, I had two consecutive days when I had time to ride. The first day was windy, and when I got out on the trail, even with a tail wind, I had nothing. My legs felt like they had oatmeal in them. The ride back home, into 25 miles of mostly headwinds, was just a head down, lead- legged pedal.
The second day was just as windy, if not a bit windier, and I set out thinking, Oh man, this looks like another slog in the wind. But strangely, I had a lot of gas in the tank for some unknown reason, and my legs felt strong, free and easy. I rode a strong pace with the tailwind out and was able to ride into the headwind on the return with a nice tempo. I finished 15 minutes earlier than the day before.
I was amazed at the difference in energy in the two days, but really can’t point to anything to explain it. It really just reminded me that you really don’t know how you’re going to feel on the bike until you get out there. It’s tough to call. At least for the amateur roadie without a team cook, massages and other things to help bring on consistently fast riding.

Why we ride our bikes
Out on the trail, coming in the opposite direction the other day, I saw a rider on a fat-tire bike. He had a big beard, and a cowboy hat, and looked to be in total bliss traversing back and forth in his lane. It was great to see. He was a person completely loving his experience riding his bike, so much into it, fully immersed in a heavenly mindset. That’s why we all ride bikes, I thought to myself. We know that freedom that a bicycle gives us, and no doubt about it, it can be pretty darn close to a religious experience.

Til next time, remember to pull on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then keep the rubber side down, ride safely, and above all, have a blast.
--Mark Eric Larson

Hey, road bike tires have fattened up...

I always assumed thinner road bike tires were the fastest. But hey, the pros have known for a few years now that that’s not the case. Tests have shown the 23 millimeter wide tire for a road bike isn’t as aerodynamic as a slightly thicker one, a 25mm. The wider tire has less rolling resistance than the thinner one, so it’s faster, and it handles better when leaning into turns. By 2011, pro cycling teams had changed from 23mm to 25mm wide tires after moving from the standard of 19mm a few years earlier. That adds up to a 30 percent increase in preferred tire width for pros over the last decade.

The difference between the 21-23mm tires and the 25s is the contact point with the road, according to research by tire manufacturer Schwalbe. The thinner tires have an elongated contact with the road, which makes them lose roundness and slows them down. But the 25mm has a shorter and wider contact point, which keeps the tire rounder, and tests show that makes it roll better.

Serious amateur riders have reportedly followed the trend in recent years, but an estimated 80 percent of road cyclists, me included, still ride on 23mms. Once my current tires wear out, I’m going to give the 25mms a shot. Plus, I’ve found pulling a 23mm tire over a rim on a tube changeout is a mighty tough job that requires strong hands to do. So not only are the 25mms faster, they’re easier to remount on your rims. Sold!

Amgen TOC opening notes

I was a volunteer course marshal for the Amgen Tour of California’s first two stages in Sacramento and Nevada City. In Sacramento, the pre race preparation of bikes for the riders was fun to check out. Saw newly retired pro peloton and fan favorite Jens Voigt checking out the sweet looking Cipollini bikes used by Axeon Cycling Team, which has a lot of up and coming young riders assembled by Axel Merckx. Also saw race favorite Mark Cavendish give a TV interview to NBCSN’s Steve Schlanger, while sitting on the steps of his team bus. Cav won the opening race without much problem because of the great work by his lead-out rider Mark Renshaw. But at the Lodi finish of the second stage, he barely nudged out Peter Sagan in a photo finish. I didn’t know it when I took a rider’s photograph at the Nevada City start, but when I looked up the race number on the Drapac rider, I found it was Wouter Wippert, the young Dutch sprinter for the Aussie team. I had never heard of him. But it turned out Wippert finished third that day at the Lodi finish, just behind Cav and Sagan. Though Wippert tweeted he was really disappointed he didn’t win, hey, his fellow riders told him it was nothing to hang his head about. No kidding! He also got second in the fourth stage sprint ending at Avila Beach, behind Sagan and ahead of Cav. Not a bad showing at all for the up and comer. Look for him in the final stage ending in the Rose Bowl.

Keeping the peace

As a course marshal at the Sacramento opening stage of the Amgen TOC, I was impressed with how the local police so adeptly provided security in the start/finish area around the state capitol. While their presence could be seen just about everywhere, they were in no way intrusive of the festive atmosphere among the crowd. They definitely have a tough job, and do many weeks of planning their security strategy of the opening stage, as I learned at an orientation session for course volunteers. Kudos to them.

After the start of the race in Sacramento, there was a women’s pro race on a loop in the downtown area. One of my jobs was to keep fans from trying to walk across the course at an intersection while the race was on, since the riders flew by every five minutes or so. A man told me he wanted to cross the course. I told him, no can do, since there’s a race going on. Then he turned sarcastic and says, “Oh really, there’s a race going on huh?” I just looked at him and then he says, “What about all those people on the other side, how are they going to get across?”

“They’ll wait til the end of the race, then they can cross,” I said.

Dude huffed and puffed, and walked away. I let the very big and tall security guy standing behind me know that this fan was a bit on the belligerent side, just so he knew.

“He gives you any more static and I’ll take care of it,” he said, with menace in his voice.

Hey, no problem!

Every other fan I encountered that day when I told them they couldn’t cross, were fine with it. They were just there to enjoy the scene, which was upbeat with the high energy PA announcer, background music piped through the speakers, chicken, pork and sausages grilling on a big barbecue near the finishing line, sending up a hungry making smoky aroma, and the colorful international collection of pro riders flying through on a fine sunny day. Great to be there.

Old meets new

At the Nevada City start, the riders pulled up to the narrow start line right next to people on the sidewalk. It struck me how calm these young guys are, just before heading off on the physical challenge of a 120-mile, wind heavy ride to Lodi, and on the morning after riding the 126.2 mile opening stage in Sacramento. To them, it’s just a day at the office. But their office time involves the energy required to stay in the peloton, or the extra effort of riders in breakaways. And when there’s a crash, it becomes a really tough day at the office.

A man said a few words of inspiration on the PA system, then played on a horn, a brilliant, plaintive rendition of the national anthem. I couldn’t see him, but I think the horn was a trombone. It prompted one pro rider to take off his helmet and hold it over his heart like a baseball player before a game. Looking up Broad Street in the cool morning sun and hearing the anthem notes from the horn, it felt like an Old West setting for the pro peloton, an interesting mix of the bygone past and the ultra modernism of professional cycling. A great moment.

While everybody took pictures as the pros rode through, it struck me that sometimes, instead of a taking a photo, it’s better just to see the scene and take it all in. There may not be a photo to go back and look at, but it’ll be in your mind, filed among your memories.

Til next time, remember to strap on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then make sure to keep the rubber side down, ride safely, and most importantly, have a blast.

-- Mark Eric Larson

Tuning up for Amgen Tour of California

Anticipation of the Amgen TOC is building, and in Sacramento, site of the first stage, pro riders kept loose on trails in the area on the days leading up to the tour.

I was on the American River bike trail a couple days ago where I saw riders from LottoNL-Jumbo, Novo Nordisk and Tinkoff-Saxo. I was on the way back from Folsom Lake and riding into the teeth of a nasty headwind when two Tinkoff-Saxo riders blew by in their optic yellow and dark blue kits, crouched over their handlebars in time trial style. These guys were like meteors, sleek and fast. Headwind? What headwind? Amazing how pro peloton riders are on such a higher plain of leg power than amateurs riders like me, out for a spin. Holy Toledo! I was riding at about 18 mph and I was passed like I was sitting still! I figure they were going 35-40 mph. No sweat. At least it looked like no sweat.

The rider rosters for the TOC have some of the biggest names in cycling such as Mark Cavendish, Peter Sagan, Andrew Talansky. But stars are the rarity in the pro peloton, most riders toil in anonymity. It’s a tough sport that offers plenty of glamor for the stars. But not so much for the no-names. They give all they have in races and rarely even get a mention. Still, beats the heck out of working a 9 to 5 in an office. Cool bikes, travel. And there’s the perk of working in outdoor settings that are much more inspiring than a cubicle and a computer, of course.

The dark side of drinking (caffeinated) coffee

I know a lot of bike riders, myself included, like to drink coffee. I drink it in the morning to start the day and then have a cup occasionally on into the day, and even at night after eating. When I get ready for a ride, though, I’ve learned to keep the coffee intake at a minimum, mainly because if I drink too much coffee, I’ll always have to stop to pee during the ride, which I really don’t like to do. But I’ve always liked the boost from coffee, that’s what keeps me drinking it. At the midpoint of my typical go-to 51-mile ride, I eat some heavily caffeinated energy gel, with the thought that the energy boost will help me with stamina on the last 25 miles of the ride. But then I came across this video done by this entertaining Aussie, who made me realize that, hey, I’m a caffeine addict. And that caffeine really aint so great for you when it comes to energy. He makes a good argument against drinking coffee for riding energy. His points really have me thinking about “flicking” coffee drinking. Check this out…

Aussie boy makes a strong argument. Now, let’s see just have to taper down on the daily coffee intake. Gotta do it! Will see how it goes… Definitely going to be headaches involved, I’ve done this before!

Energy savings = cruise control

I’m slowly learning to save energy when on a long ride. Mainly because it’s nice not to run out of gas out on the trail! The ideal for me is to be able to maintain a strong cadence on long flat stretches, while resting. Like when drafting a fast rider. But it’s harder to save energy when riding solo when there’s nobody to draft on. The key for me is to relax mentally when I have a relatively strong, mid-gear cadence. That is, have a mindset that I’m not pushing myself, but rather in a relaxed cruise control. Then when I do want to hit the hammer and push myself, I’ve got some gas in the tank. The key for me though is to get optimum speed in cruise control. That is, fast enough to be able to relax, but not too slow to maintain a fairly strong pace. It’s a fine balance, but it’s a good zone to be in. I’ve ust started to realize that it takes away the stress of of riding long stretches, trying for speed in a too-high gear and in full-on pain cave mode. When I do that, I usually burn out my legs before my lungs and have to back off to recover. For me it’s a work in progress, an experimental thing to manage energy, hope you can relate!

Til next time, remember to strap on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then, keep the rubber side down, ride safely, and don’t forget to have a blast.

-- Mark Eric Larson

Ride is on? Uh, it's snowing hard, man

I signed up to be a course marshal for the opening Sacramento stage of the Amgen Tour of California next week. At an orientation meeting for race volunteers, Eric Smith, the guy that maps out the courses for each stage, told a story that I could relate to: The fickle, quick-to-change weather at Lake Tahoe.

I grew up on the Nevada side of the south shore of Tahoe, and one of the things I learned from my years living there was this: It will snow unexpectedly. When it isn’t even close to winter. I remember it snowing on Easter, a day typically associated with spring-like weather. And for some reason, it would sometimes snow out of the blue, in June. I was once at the beach at Tahoe with friends, on a perfectly sunny June day, and spotted nasty black storm clouds come over the mountains on the west side of the lake and head eastward toward us like a runaway train. The wind kicked up, dark clouds came, the temp dropped to icy cold in a heartbeat, and before we knew it, we were running to the car in the rain, with hail on its heels. Hey, supposed to be summer here!

Eric’s the guy that gives the final OK to start each stage of the Amgen tour. In May 2011, the first stage was to start at South Lake Tahoe. Riders would go around the lake one and a half times, and finish at the North Star ski resort, in the mountains a few miles north of the lake. And even though it was May on race day, not so surprisingly, the temp was frigid, snow was in the air, and Eric had to figure out if the snow starting to fall was going to stick on the roads and put the riders in serious danger of slipping and crashing.

To check out the first part of the course, he drove out toward Emerald Bay on the twisty Highway 89, a two-lane road through the woods that climbs to the ridges above Emerald Bay via very tight, steep switchbacks.

“Out there, the sky was blue, it was nice,” Eric told us. “The roads were wet, but it looked good.”

So he radioed back to the start line where all the riders and support cars were lined up, waiting in the cold. He gave the green light to start the race.

“We turned around and started to drive back,” he said. “And it was suddenly complete white-out.” Snow coming down so hard he could barely see ahead. He called off the stage, and the tour instead started under clear skies the next day in Nevada City, in the Sierra foothills northwest of Tahoe.

I was bummed the Tahoe stage had to be called off. The TV coverage would have shown the cycling world the stunning beauty of the Lake of the Sky. Good news is, this year, the women’s professional tour is beginning its Amgen tour at Tahoe. Just hope it doesn’t snow this time. There’s a drought going on, so it probably won’t. But as Eric will attest, snow is a possibility at Tahoe, even in May.

Stage management

Eric Smith also gave some of us Amgen TOC stage volunteers a play by play of how a stage race starts. Teams all ride together at about 20 mph, and then when all is in order, the front of the peloton gets the “go” flag and the race is on.

“Before the race starts, they ride in place at about 20 mph,” he said. “Then when the race starts, they’re immediately riding at 40 mph. I don’t know how they do that, but they do it every time.”

And, he said, local road cyclists often try to keep up with the back of the peloton at the start, he said, “But they drop off after three or four minutes.”

The “broom wagon,” is the car at the end of the line of team cars and medical cars that follow the peloton during the race. If a rider can’t keep up with the peloton during the earlier stages of the race due to injury or a mechanical, either the broom wagon picks them up, or the rider’s team car does. But late in a grueling stage race,  some riders get popped off the back of the peloton. But it becomes a problem, said Smith, when lagging riders cause a long gap between support cars and the peloton.

“That’s when we pull up next to the rider and say, ‘How’s it going? We have some cold drinks and we can pick you up right now.'” And for a bonked rider who has been spit out the back of the peloton, that’s welcome offer.

Hey that guy looks like a pro

Riding on the bike trail a few weeks ago, I got passed by a young rider on a very slick looking dark blue and optic yellow painted bike – couldn’t see the brand -- and he was going around 20 mph. I caught his wheel, and followed for a mile or so, then passed him on a long straightaway that had a nasty headwind. I just wanted a workout battling the headwind, and by the time that section ended on a wind protected but long uphill pitch, I slowed down and made my way up it as I got my breath back. This guy, who looked like one of those small pro peloton climbers from South America with three lungs, passed me easily and smiled as he did so. I recovered and again tried to catch his wheel. The trail was then heading generally downhill, so I got enough momentum to eventually reel him in after about three miles. At another flat section with big headwinds I passed him and hammered it all the way through the section. I kept a strong pace up and over a bridge and got back on the trail on the other side of the river. I figured the guy turned off or something. If not, he surely would have passed me again by now. So I pedaled on for about three miles and out of the blue, the guy passed me again. He was on a strong pace and at this point, after I’d ridden about 40 miles and climbed 1,200 feet, I was feeling it. No way could I crank it up to catch his wheel. He rode fast, free and easy, and I just watched him disappear on the trail ahead of me. But hey, he helped me pick up my pace. At least for a few miles! Amazing how fast and fit the guy was.

Til next time, remember to strap on a helmet every time you get on the bike. And then, keep the rubber side down, ride safely and then be sure to have a blast.

-- Mark Eric Larson