Matt Cooke – Our Resident Pro Cyclist
Posted on 29. Dec, 2009 by Jordan in The Gear Movers
Matt Cooke racing his TT rig to perfection with the Ride Clean Team in 2009
After spending the last two years on big and successful professional cycling teams, racing as an amateur with a smaller budgeted team was not what I wanted to do for the 2009 season. The experience proved to be a really good one for me and turned out to be fun at the same time. The Ride Clean Team for 2009 was composed of mostly young guys from Arizona and I was the one stand out from Colorado. Even though we had a small budget we were still supported at every race, I was really impressed with those guys. At Redlands we stayed in a mansion that makes me think twice about having cycling as a career. The 12 year old kid at the house could play the cello, speak Chinese and annihilate me at Nintendo Wii. Redlands was such a hard race, that damn Sunset Loop on the last day never gets any easier. I really don’t want to think about it, I am only now just getting over that pain.
Matt Cooke on the podium, second from left - looking fit!
The next race was Tour of the Gila where the big news was that Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner were racing. The first day was a mountain top finish and I ended up getting 4th and beating Lance! I was very happy to be riding so well. All week long everything felt so easy and I was looking forward to the last day’s stage, which featured a lot of climbing and another mountain top finish. Sadly I never made it that far. After only a few miles the peloton was sheltering itself by riding in the shoulder of the road because of strong winds. Everyone was racing fast, wheel to wheel trying to stay safe and save energy for later in the race. Without any warning the rider on my right hit a large rock in the road with his front wheel. I can still remember seeing his wheel make impact with that damn rock. He went over his bars and into me. I hit the ground with my head and shoulder. I was taken to the hospital with the other rider who had face planted into the concrete. My collarbone was broken and my whole race was over even before it began.
I ended up getting surgery to fix the collarbone. The doctor did an amazing job by the way, and I was riding again after a month, pretty amazing I think.
I think this picture explains it all, not a fun time for my poor collarbone!
I bounced back and had a good end of the season with a 12th overall at Tour of Utah and 3rd at the Green Mountain Stage Race, a race I had won in 2006. But 3rd was great and I’m happy with it.
After many phone calls and sending out even more resumes I am happy to say I am on a pro team again for 2010. It is called Team Mountain Khakis. They have been mostly a criterium focused team but they are making a strong push for stage racing success next year. I hope I can live up to what they want out of me and what I want out of myself. For now stay in touch for some more updates from me throughout the New Year, and check out the site of my new team – www.teammountainkhakis.com
Happy New Year!
A Visit to Arrow Bicycles
Posted on 29. Dec, 2009 by Jordan in Jordan
Jordan visits Arrow Bicycles from left Jordan, Chris Militello, GiGi, Chris Davidson
Just a few days after Christmas I stopped into my favorite bike shop on the East Coast; Arrow Bicycles! Owned by the two Chris’, Davidson and Militello, this shop is the brain trust of two highly experienced veteran’s of bike shop culture. Have you ever had that one boss that drove you crazy in the shop you used to work in? Well these two did, they managed as best they could but finally looked at each other and said, “Hey we can do this better on our own.” You put a drive to create a top notch bike shop, the friendly attitude of these two men and the need for a bike shop in the up and coming neighborhood of Hyattsville, MD and you have a recipe for success!
A visit to Arrow Bicycles, we are able to catch a sneak peak of the limited edition Arrow Bicycles Custom Hockey Jerseys, modeled by Chris Militello
Chris and Chris have been in business for a little over a year and a half and while their shop is not busting at the seams, they seam to be doing just fine in a terrible economy where bike shops are dropping like flies. Their reason for success? “Its got to be their experience and bicycle savvy,” say most people. Knowing these guys for the better part of the last decade I know that is a possibility but the real reason is that the Chris’ are just fun people! In a competitive market, everyone needs to be at the top of their game, but the Chris’ go beyond that. They will help you out with whatever you need, no matter who you are, and they will do it with a smile and some love. Its the love that keeps these kinds of bike shops going in hard times. Hats off to you boys!!
Never a dull moment at Arrow Bicycles, always joking around, but here to serve your every bicycle need, no matter what the situation!
My business partner Ben Duke and myself started this business about 6 months after they started theirs and no matter what the hardships where that they encountered he still told me to follow my dream. Militello happens to be one of the few people in this world that I can trust more than anything, and he has proved himself. With a little heart and a big smile, Ben and I have created a great business that is steadily growing and growing!
Chris Davidson, Chris Militello, Gigi and that great bottle of Scotch, here is to you, you guys rock! (A glass is raised)
PS Folks, if you happen to be in the greater Washington, DC area please look these guys up, they will take care of you for all your cycling related needs!
Colorado State CX Championships
Posted on 08. Dec, 2009 by Jordan in Nicole
Nicole Duke flying though a corner at CO CX State Champs. Photo by M. Woolcott
Down and dirty, just the way I like it!! Cyclocross State Champ race that is. The day was cold and windy, the course technical, sloppy and sometimes frozen. Thank God because my legs haven’t been feeling so fast lately so I needed to fall back on my skills, you know those ones that used to pay the bills. I’m a cheeseball…
Nicole Duke rode smooth and finished in third for the day
This is how it went down. Lisa Strong, Karen Hogan and I jumped the start and hung together for a while. Strong being the great rider she is slowly started to inch away from Karen and me, bye bye. Karen and I battled for a good lap, me passing in the technical, her powering past on the flats. Finally she pulled away and I let her go. The rest of the race i just tried to hold my podium spot. A few battles ensued with some of the 45+ men, shoulder to shoulder around the corners and various other frustrating encounters. Us Pro/Open Women don’t have our own race, so we also race the 45+ men. Some of them are very gracious but some will do anything not to get “chicked”. Now the last lap and for the life of me I can not get in my frozen, muddy pedals!! Ahhhhhhh!!!! Kristal Boni is gaining on me. Then she passes, I hang on and shoot past her at the entrance of a technical ditch section. Over the barrier, back on the bike and silence. What happened to her I do not know but I am thankful. Still I cannot get in the pedals and it’s slow going. Last gnarly downhill(which I love) and the finish!! Glad to be done and happy with 3rd. Felt like a great prep for Nationals in Bend, OR which I am hoping will be muddy.
Loving husband Ben Duke cleans Nicole's bike in 5 deg weather. Photo by J. Schware
What a great season I’ve had with all the girls! Made some great new friends and fell in love with Cross even more!! Nationals for me this year will be about the experience and time away from Boulder with my good friend Becca Blay. My body is done, time to rest and drink some yummy Belgian beer! Cheers and wish me good luck in Bend!
The Employees of The Gear Movement
Posted on 03. Dec, 2009 by Jordan in The Gear Movers
Part of the TGM crew showing their fun side!! Photo by Ben Duke
Did a small photo shoot with some of the employees at our shop yesterday! Part of owning a small business and trying to keep things interesting around here is doing fun stuff! Don’t get us wrong, we don’t take the entire shop to the amusement park on a regular basis but sitting behind a computer and posting Gear on eBay can get a little old sometimes.
Matt showing his best "Blue Steel" impression! Photo by Ben Duke
With an impending snow storm coming in today that dropped a good 5 -6 inches of the powdery white stuff we thought it would be a great time to get out and do a little photo shoot. Pictures are courtesy here by Ben Duke – our fearless leader who takes some amazing shots. Ben has a great understanding of light and how to get the right angles; Jordan typically takes Ben’s great shots and distorts them or ruins the lighting!
Elizabeth - obvously from the "wesstsidde" Photo by Ben Duke
After Ben took these rad photos it was back to work and business as usual, but ay know – we have fun here! That is the most important part of our business. We are here to post your Gear on eBay, so let us know if we can help you move your old inventory – we have fun doing it, and you will definitely have fun getting the checks in the mail! Cheers to all from the crew at TGM!
The paparrazzo is looking for Mr. Ranno! Photo by Ben Duke/Papparrizzi
Elizabeth and Matt showing their "Gangstah" side!
Back in The Game!
Posted on 17. Nov, 2009 by Jordan in Nicole
Nicole Duke of The Gear Movement Pro Team - hitting the barriers
Here I am, and I find myself back in the game. The racing game that is. After taking some time off to have my second child Canin , I am energized, recovered and ready to hang with my girls on the cross course.
My career started back in 1995 as a Professional Downhill and Dual Slalom racer. I raced for teams such as Giant, Mongoose, Intense, and others. In 2000 I decided to retire as I was broken and tired from all the expected downhill racer crashes. For years I didn’t ride—burnt out!! I started a new career as a hairstylist and eventually met my husband Ben. Then came Ryder our first child—the wild thing. I found myself missing the chase, the race, and time with the girls. In 2007 I decided to give cyclocross a try.
My first race was on the only bike I had, a hard tail mountain bike. I really had no idea what to expect and to my surprise I finished 3rd in the Womens’ Open field. All right, game on. I headed to Boulder Cycle Sport to talk with my friend Brandon Dwight. I knew he had been doing this for years and could show me the way. He hooked me up with a bike, jersey and I found myself now racing for their local team.
A sand pit - Nicole Duke on her way to a sweet 5th place finish in the Woman' Pro Race
The season went well and I was making friends fast and racing well. My only problem was I never watched the lap counter. Yes, I was passed several times at the line and left wondering. My lesson for the season, yes I know its obvious, but I wasn’t used to racing on a lap count. Racing DH, it was always the fastest one to the bottom.
Excited now and ready to get serious for the next season I started talking to a few local teams about sponsorship. I had decided to go with Mafia racing, ready to represent. I mean they were sponsored by PBR, they had to be fun. Two weeks later, we learned baby Canin was on her way. Racing had to wait.
Canin was born on October 30th 2008 and I wasn’t sure I would be able to race again. Two kids, a part time job, and not a lot of free time wasn’t conducive to training or racing. I approached the next summer with no expectations of racing and wanted to ride just enough to keep up with my friends. My friends are mostly professional athletes, I had to try pretty hard!
Now, I find myself racing the 2009 Cross season for our new company The Gear Movement and I’m giving it another go. No expectations, I entered the first race and much to my surprise finished 5th. Every race I have gotten stronger and cross-race wiser. I’m now consistently finishing 3rd and sometimes find myself hanging with the likes of World Champion Allison Dunlap and National Champion Allison Powers. Every weekend the family (thanks to the hubbie) looks forward to cowbells, bouncy castles, kids races and sticky mud. A retired racers’ family dream. I’ve found a way to integrate family with racing. My son now “cyclocrosses” his bike over every curb, I am so proud!
Nationals are in my sights. Sounds like fun and I could use a little girlfriend time away from laundry, diapers and screaming kids. Cyclocross, I’ve discovered is actually 45mins of painful freedom!
Mud Time!
Boulder Cup Cyclocross Weekend
Posted on 04. Nov, 2009 by Jordan in Jordan, Pro Wrenching
Jesse Anthony From Team Jamis. Photo by Dave Wright
Just got done working for the Giant Factory Racing team with my buddy Steve Kiusalas this last weekend in Boulder, CO. We had a few athletes to wrench for in the pits at the Boulder Cup weekend races – Carl Decker, Adam Craig, and Kelli Emmett. The info came in kind of last minute to Giant’s right hand man Steve. I think he got word on Thursday that he would need to do some work for the team on the weekend and he asked me for some help! On Friday we had the team over to what we call the “Pimp Pad” – our N. Boulder house complete with 5 bedrooms, huge yard, 2 car garage, hot tub, and 12 point elk head positioned above the front door! The “Pimp Pad” was perfect for getting all of the bikes out of boxes, tuned and ready for a weekend of mud. With the recent change in weather from 30 degrees and 2 feet of snow to 60 degrees and sunny, it was bound to be an epic weekend of epic mud!
We drove The Gear Movement official car over to the race around 11pm at the Xilinx Business Park near Longmont on Saturday for the days activities. Parked next to the Mafia Racing/PBR crew we had tons of entertainment and great beer!! Kelli smashed it in the Women’s Pro Race taking a 4th place in a star studded field on a super muddy course. The bad ass that she is, she only came into the pit twice to switch onto her spare bike, while her competitors were swapping bikes every two laps.
Steve Kiusalas and Jordan in the Pits. Photo by Rich Straub
The men’s race turned out to be quite a spectacle with Tim Johnson (a good friend of our’s) taking the win about 1:30 ahead of the rest of the field. Adam Craig managed to limp the last half of the last lap with a leaky rear tire to hold onto 4th place! Two fourths in one day of racing is not bad considering the competitive field.
Later that night Jordan and Steve carted the filthy bikes back to the “Pimp Pad” and cleaned them over and over with PBR’s in hand!
Sunday’s race saw dry and dusty conditions out at the Boulder Res for the final day of the Boulder Cup. Kelli Emmett came through again with an impressive 5th place and no mechanicals or crashes on the day!! Adam didn’t do as well as the day before in the Men’s Pro Race finishing somewhere around 12th or 13th but Carl Decker came home to take 7th in a super fast paced sandy race. The best viewing spots were the massively long sand pit and the cool barrier section on the front side of the course. Sunday night saw some more bike cleaning and packing for Steve and Jordan as well as the team and a nice dinner downtown. Monday morning came all to earlier and it was back to the daily grind at The Gear Movement!!
Steve Kiusalas and Jordan in the Pits. Photo by Rich Straub
The new location
Posted on 10. Jun, 2009 by Jordan in Ben, Jordan, The Gear Movers
The new space at - roll up warehouse door - pre tuneup
We don’t want to jinx anything before it has happened but we wanted to let all of our fans and current clientele know that we might be moving out of the cramped basement soon!
Duke and myself just did our first tour of commercial and industrial retail locations around Boulder. For any of you who have never done this, even if you don’t have a business that needs a new location, I would recommend setting out on one of these trips with a realtor. Try not to tell them off the bat that you are not really looking for a space!
Hanging bike racks from the rafters - Ben, and Mike Dunn
We met with Kimberly Baldwin on Lee Hill Dr. looking at a place in the Holiday part of town. There are some pretty cool buildings over there, but the floor plans are quite limited. We next traveled down to a spot over on Old Pearl Pkwy between 47th and 49th. This location was super cool with huge ceilings, a bathroom and tons of space, but the location is just a little off. Any of you who have ridden the bike path around this area can attest to that…
Painting with Ryder Duke - he was awesome!
Next was off to a location on Walnut at 4745. The building is a three-unit space with the back unit being the old shipping dept of some former business. This place seemed to be a perfect fit for our biz! The property comes chalk full of bonuses – the old Boulder rail sign on the railroad behind the back of the property, a loading dock, basketball hoop, ample area for a grill, table and chairs, and premium location just off the bike path!
Our final stop on the day was a building adjacent to Graham Watson’s studio on Central Pkwy just off of 55th. Great location but the building just wasn’t right for our purposes, too many sectioned off offices and too little warehousing space. Hopefully we will be able to have some negotiations with the owners at 4745 Walnut and sooner than later we can sign a lease and move into the spot, wish us luck!
Nearing the end - painting the floor, phew bad, bad fumes!
Starting a new Business in an “upside down” economy.
Posted on 17. May, 2009 by Jordan in Ben, Jordan, The Gear Movers
The beginning of it all. The motherload from a great shop in CO
So when Ben and myself started to devise a plan to do an upstart new business in the early months of ’09, we obviously decided to put our knowledge of current affairs, the economy and our business degree to great use, hint the sarcasm.
Believe it or not, this is almost the perfect economic climate to create a new venture devoted to helping people “Move Their Gear.” We created a company where individuals, pro teams, pro athletes, independent reps, industry insiders, and independent retailers can sell their unused, used and even abused gear to the masses through eBay. With a slow economy and the lack of time everyone now has on their hands having to fill in spare small jobs on their calendars to make ends meet – enter The Gear Movement.
Pack it all in! A 22ft box truck full to the brim, ohhh yeahh!!
What we didn’t anticipate was the steady and increasing amount of growth we have seen in just a few months of business. Although the business is still run out of my increasingly cramped house in NoBoCo we are feeling the effects of the growth pretty steadily. Numbers are jumping and new clients are coming though the doors, a few days ago this meant a new phone plan (new iphones) for Duke and myself. Apparently Duke had been using the “free with plan” phone for about 3 years, finally we hooked him up!
The one and only - Mr. Ben Duke, uhh hows the mocha?
Another cool thing about owning our own business is that Duke and myself have been able to make our own hours and be responsible only to our selves, well actually Ben has a few other mouths to feed, but for the most part…
Heres to more bike rides and working towards what we call, “something cool!”
Long time no Talk!
Posted on 18. Jul, 2008 by Jordan in Jordan, Pro Wrenching
Yo Yo! I haven’t written anything here in more than a few months. Since the last, I have been traveling like a mad man as usual. We have raced in CA, GA, NC, SC, MD, DE, VA, NJ, PA, MN, IL and im sure there are some other states that im missing!
I got to spend some time in the DC area with the fam during May which was a huge highlight. Then we had a super tough week of racing in the Minneapolis area at the end of June, and crammed in between that were tons of small East Coast crits. Ohh I forgot, somewhere in there I dropped into my pseudo home – Boulder, CO for a little fun with the homies!
Currently we are in the Milwaukee area for the 2nd week of Superweek! This 18 day series begins the Chicago area and finishes up in Milwaukee. I am the only staff member here for about 6 guys we are racing around 6pm every night around 100km crit courses. Super easy racing and no hype so life is good!
The next few weeks are super busy with lots of Midweastern travel and a few vacation days in Boulder. Lata Yall!
PS: check out these links for some sweet footage of me working. These are some of our sponsor sites:
Our Team website, my bio:
http://www.kbsmedifast.com/team/staff_bios.php?id=17
Our Sponsor Park Tools did a little photo shoot, check out the pic at the bottom of me in action:
http://www.parktool.com/whatsnew/index.asp
Our Sponsor SRAM has started a new behind the scenes blog, super cool, tons of cool footage. Check out the videos titled: The bikes of Kelly Benefits, and the Kelly Candy Throwing…good stuff
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