We want you! LCBC Recruitment

LCBC has had a great first season of road racing and appreciates all the support from our sponsors, racers, families, friends, and fellow cyclists. Although the road season hasn't officially ended, we wanted to get the word out that LCBC is looking for enthusiastic, dedicated cyclists who are interested in road or cyclocross racing next season.

Our team was formed earlier this year to serve as a new face for Baltimore County cycling and an opportunity to unify the numerous avid cyclists who have a desire to be competitive in the world of road and cyclocross racing. We believe in riding as a solid unit and support and push each other to excel and exceed personal and team goals.

If you are interested in joining the LCBC team, shoot us an email at lequipecyclismebc@gmail.com and we'd love the opportunity to chat, ride, and get to know you.

In the meantime, we'll have representation out at the Highway to Heaven TT next weekend and will be finishing up the road racing season with Dawg Days of Summer. In the interim, a couple of our racers are already preparing for the cyclocross season and look forward to an exciting Fall schedule.

FreshBikes Group Ride

Since the LCBC team has taken a brief hiatus from racing for a couple of weeks, we wanted to highlight an awesome group ride one of the team members, Andrew Stroup, stumbled across while down in DC on a weekday. The Arlington FreshBikes Tuesday group ride is not your common group ride. Unlike the numerous group rides we've grown accustomed to in Baltimore, you aren't simply joined by 5-6 other cyclists looking for a good workout, but a posse that is almost overwhelming.

Feeling like a neutral roll out for a gran fondo, Andrew was joined by ~150 other cyclists for a solid training ride through Arlington, Falls Church, and McLean. Attempting some reconnaissance pre-ride, Andrew identified some cyclists who he raced with throughout this season, talking about the A riders, the B riders, and then everybody else. As the ride began, FreshBikes requested all the "slower" riders to start up front. The group was escorted by a train of police cars and bikes, blocking major intersections and roads for a continuous roll out to the "loop." As the ride progressed out of Arlington, Andrew found himself in the middle of the pack, passing and being passed by various cyclists over some moderate rollers at a casual pace. As the group turned onto an on ramp (yes an on ramp) and headed West, the groups quickly broke off and the ride was on.

By the time Andrew realized what was happening, the A group noodled off the front. Keeping in contact with some of the other cyclists he had raced with, he bridged up to them and stayed in contact with the lead B group. He quickly learned that the A and B groups were more of a race than a ride and found himself constantly drafting, pulling, or bridging up climbs, around corners, and down descents.

The B group headed home after one lap, while the A loop stayed around for a couple more for some extra suffering. Andrew was with 3 or 4 riders that broke off the front of the B group and was rejoined with the remaining group as they entered back into Arlington.

Overall, the group ride was a great change of pace, a chance to catch up with some fellow racers in a non-hostile environment, and some good conditioning as the summer racing season comes to a close. As far as upcoming races for LCBC, we have our eyes set on the Highway to Heaven in a couple of weeks and the Dawg Days of Summer as a closer for this year's season.

Greenbelt Training Race and Team Update

Since the team took a weekend off of racing, they've had a chance to catch up on the Giro and Amgen while prepping for BikeJam. Meanwhile, Joe Siegel decided to enter a mid-week training race over at Greenbelt to test his new training regime and log another race for upgrading.

Still working on his last couple of Cat 5 races before upgrading, Joe entered the Group C Greenbelt Training Race. The field was about 30 deep, with some familiar faces as well as various unattached racers. In typical clydesdale fashion, Joe spent the majority of his time at the front of the pack, cranking away the watts and pushing the pace the entire race. Unfortunately once again, he was unable to inspire the other racers sucking on his back wheel to hop up there and form a legitimate breakaway. Already running on tired legs from a hard week of training, the power wasn't quite there to manage a solo breakaway.

Joe at Greenbelt Training Race, Group C

On the last lap, after the neutral turn, Joe, Nathan Ong, and another racer sat at the front of the group with little room for any racers behind them to pass. As predicted, a couple of meters out, Nathan shifted into his drops and started to lay the hammer down for his sprint finish. Joe quickly picked up on his back wheel and rode in for 2nd place.

Another solid performance by Joe in the Cat 5 field as he prepares himself for upgrading and joining the rest of the team. His upgrade will serve as a turning point, allowing the team to enter into 3/4 fields and race as a cohesive group with purpose.

As for our other racers, Dave Cohen is on the quick road to recovery from his double hernia surgery a couple of weeks ago. He's been easing into riding and recently joined up with the Wednesday night Twenty20 ride, winning the sprint section (and that's taking it easy, hah). On Monday, Andrew Stroup was out on a rainy training ride with Mike Retzlaff and crashed out over a bridge, breaking his left hand. This puts him out of racing for 6 weeks and a forced mini-winter break on the trainer. We wish him a speedy recovery. This leaves Luke Mysko to fend for himself at BikeJam this Sunday, but the entire team will be out at Patterson Park supporting our el presidente. Mid-term, the team is eyeing a couple of tour races (Tour of Page County) in June/July where we'll have the whole team riding together.

Keeping it Aero, Head Injuries, the Pebble, and Elite Women

A few articles have popped up across the series of tubes pertaining to velo culture, news, and updates that the LCBC team has found interesting.

Keeping it Aero

Aerodynamics is here to stay. Although the attention to and incorporation of aerodynamic designs and considerations in cycling have been slow to progress compared to other sports, the topic is now a hot issue and will likely drive cycling technology over the next few years.

VeloNews posted an article about the topic and the slow acceptance of aerodynamic qualities in gear by the pro peloton. There is a plethora of additional information, both on technical and laymen levels, of why aerodynamics plays a huge factor in road cycling, and since some of our racers tote formal technical training on the subject, LCBC looks forward to the further development of aerodynamic qualities as more companies invest in this area of research.

Head Injuries

Another interesting article by VeloNews was posted about USA Cycling discussing head injury protocol during races and the appropriate actions cyclists, teams, and on-hand physicians should be performing post-crash. This has always been a touchy subject, since often times we'll see racers crash and then immediately scramble to get back on their bike without any consideration of potential short or long-term damages that just occurred. No official rules have been implemented, but we won't be surprised when some additional rigor is applied to address this issue at races.


The Pebble


Not directly related to cycling, but really interesting, TechCrunch posted up an article about the Pebble smart watch, which destroyed their KickStarter fundraising goal (raising $1M in 28 hours, with only a $100k goal) and is quite an interesting product with an application towards cycling. The Pebble is a good looking e-paper watch for the iPhone or Android that syncs via bluetooth. Phone information is displayed on the watch based on customized applications, including phone calls, text messages, emails, and music, also including controls and action buttons customized for the applications. The creator is an avid cyclist and found it tedious always stopping to check his phone for various reasons. There is an array of applications from cycling to golf, with endless opportunities as more apps are created. Since we have several tech geeks out there, this is another fun little toy to check out!



Elite Women

And finally, thank you CyclingNews for giving all of us a little cycling eye candy and hope for women's cycling with an article about Ferrand Prevot, an elite French woman cyclist who not only crushes the field at the age of 20, but also has become our new cycling crush (although we're sure she would also crush us on the road too). She has her sights set for the Olympics and we look forward to watching her performance.

Interval Enthusiast

For quite some time the Lake Montebello loop has been closed due to a construction project that started mid-March. As of 10 April, the loop is open and available for runners and cyclists.

This is a great place for the guys that live in Baltimore to spin around on a recovery day, practice a pace line, or throw down some mean intervals, gauntlet style. LCBC is definitely glad to see the reopening and we'll see you out there!

Baltimore Velo Updates

Although there are various Baltimore velo blogs, sometimes our readers don't always have the luxury of perusing and filtering through all the blogs and posts, so we'll try and condense a quick summary of Baltimore related velo news pertinent to the team to keep you informed.

First off, if you'd like to check out the individual Baltimore velo blogs, here are some links to get you started:

http://baltimorevelo.com/
http://www.bmorebikes.com/
http://bmorefixed.com/home/

3-Foot Law

The most interesting Baltimore velo news has been the study published by the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for a Livable Future. The study addressed Baltimore's use of the "3-foot law." The article, written by Dave Love and posted on www.bmorebikes.com (the article is no longer available via B'more Bikes, but the original study is available here)

TLDR: 1 out of 6 motorists don't adhere to the Maryland law, surprise surprise, BUT lucky for the cylists, if you're riding on a street with a bike lane, motorists follow the law 20% more often.

Bottom line, keep an eye over your left shoulder because we all know that riding with/next to Baltimore motorists can be sketchy. Be safe out there!


Greenspring Ave Bike Lanes

Riding the train of safety and bike lanes, if you're deciding to head North out of Baltimore via Greenspring Ave, feel a little more at ease with some new bike lanes that have been added North of Cross Country Boulevard. B'more Bikes has the story here.