Arriving in San Francisco for Stage 3 of ToC, beautiful and typical weather of this area

An 8 day bike race wrapped up and done, but geeze, it feels like a grand tour. This 2010 edition of California’s premier sporting event was by far the most exciting and intriguing race I have done in years. I have worked this race every year but one and couldn’t have asked for anything more. I have never worked for a ProTour Team before, and this was an experience. From the late nights, to the extra little bit of work we did all day to set ourselves apart from the other teams at the bike race, it was definitely a good experience. From the outside the Garmin-Transitions ProTour Team looks like a looming fortress of pretentious staff and riders. It is not, this team is a huge family that after spending a week and a half with them I noticed how close they really are!

Jordan with the Specialized Angel at the start of Stage 3

Garmin-Transitions Team Super Fan, this kid was soo adorable!

The 20 some staff and 8 riders gelled really well together during the race. We had 2 personal chefs, 3 mechanics, 3 sougniers, 2 directors, 1 team photographer, and multiple media and sponsorship liaisons. Can you imagine the logistics of getting each one of these people to and from each race every day? I don’t know how it all gets done.

Our Chefs Chris and Barbara Grealish with thier new parking lot toy!

Probably some of the best times at the bike race where had by the 3 mechanics, hanging out in the parking lot after a bunch of bike working, eating the leftovers of a gourmet dinner served by our two chefs! I gotta say, Chris and Barbara Grealish, thanks so much for the food! On stage 7, the Time Trial in Downtown Los Angeles, I got to follow Tom Danielson during his ride. What an experience, he was flying through the course and although he didn’t post a great time on the day, he had an impressive ride through some of the gnarly windy sections and the one steep little climb.

HTC Columbia mechanic Chris Franges and his awesome bikes get ready for the TT at the hotel in Big Bear

Following Tommy D in the TT on Stage 7 in Los Angeles

Hanging out with TT1 mechanic Alex Banyay and Fly V's mechanic Tennyson Hulcy after Stage 7 of the ToC

The SRAM crew poses for a photo op in-front of the Staples Center at the Stage 7 TT in Los Angeles

I gotta say the number 1 experience for me came on the last day of the bike race when I got to drive the 2nd caravan car in the peloton on the unassumingly tough Stage 8. A lot of teams came into the last day unprepared for what was about to hit them. What looked like a simple course turned out to be a leg/lung burner. A super technical, twisty climb of more than 5k, followed by one of the gnarliest descents I have ever witnessed. I had the 4 tires on the super reliable Subaru Outback squealing on the 8k descent, ohhh my gosh it was the most fun I’ve ever had! I definitely envy a Team Director who gets to sit in the front seat and drive on a regular basis, my spot in the backseat is like a desk-job…boring!

Redwood forests from Stage 3, beautiful!

Mechanics Tom Hopper and Jordan chilly and wet to the bone after Stage 2 to Santa Rosa. It was a downpour all day...

We took two stage wins, and the overall team classification win for the entire race, what an impressive performance boys! It looks like I will be working part time with the Garmin-Transitions Pro team for the rest of the year. On tap next will be the USPRO Championships in Greenville, SC in early September. After that I will most likely do my first ProTour races in Canada – Montreal, and Quebec City, if I don’t do those, look for me on TV at the Vuelta a España, holy cow! Adios amigos!!

Post race dinner, me and Dave Zabriskie getting comfy...

To get a feel for the wine before you indulge, Ranno tilts and swirls

A new direction? Well, not exactly, but definitely a new way to seal the deal.  Before we get into things, lets get one thing clear – wine does it for me.  I’ve put in the base miles training my palate,  and the rewards being reaped are magical.  Good bottles stay in my memory for weeks until I get the ‘wine guy’ at Liquor Mart to order the store a case I soon there-after splurge on with the 20% case discount.  I just can’t seem to have a meal after 12 noon without the stuff.  Not quite addicted to the point of AA, but an admirer of the art form.  I also happen to be applying for Italian citizenship, and guess what, that’s part of the application – molto bene!!

Nick tests the value of a possible trade for some bike gear...

A new client of TGM just happens to be the owner of a vineyard.  I heard this tid-bit of information through my boss’s closed office door across our warehouse to my lonesome workspace with Pandora set blasting on 80’s pop.  I perked up like a 6th grader at a pool party.  But at this point it was still hear-say.  “What are the  chances of that working out” I thought to myself.  Well, this morning my skepticism was thrown under the bus.  A delivery at 10:30 a.m.?  You got it.  I could see the alcohol sticker on the blank brown box from afar – brought me right back to my days at Boulder Wine & Spirits where I began to memorize the monthly visits of the reps with “the good stuff” for us to taste and hopefully sell.  That’s right, we received our feeler, our taster if you will.  Our possible client, who unfortunately will have to remain nameless, came through.  Four bottles free of charge – a gesture of good faith.  Now its up to us to test the waters…  Obviously, we can’t trade 72 cases of wine for a road bike, but who knows, maybe the wine can be his/her form of The Gear Movement coupons, redeemable at Diesel’s desk.

Pop that thang!

Now on to what came out of the box.  A 2003 Napa Valley Cabernet, a 2007 Sonoma Valley Syrah, a 2007 Montepulciano – Sonoma (I like him already, he’s importing Italian varietals!!!), and a 2005 Sonoma Valley Cabernet.  Boo-yah!!!!  An ‘03 Napa Cabernet?! Are you serious?  This sucker is going to be a face eraser!  Big & balanced forward fruit with, huge nose, lingering berry notes in the back of your tasters as she goes down – surely to flank the palate from all sides.  The 2007 Syrah should be a soft, elegant, and smooth fruit sensation ready to swing dance with any savory dish thrown its way.  The Montepulciano?  This Tuscan gem is hopefully the dry, balanced-tannin and sophisticated fruit I’m after in my $7/bottle budget that I am all-to-often unable to find.  And the 2007 Sonoma Cabernet? A possible cellar candidate (yea, if I had one)?  Well, I’ll let you know when I get there.  We’ll see if I can wait until Friday.  Salud ”

The wine is poured by Diesel himself!

Jack Bissell shows off his new Crosskate Neck Breaking All Mountain Skates, yikes!

Not only have we been having tons of fun at the shop posting our clients cool Gear but we have added some new employees and some new features in our rad warehouse. Isnt it every grown persons dream where they can work in a cool environment that pushes them to have fun on the job? Well we try to do that here although we do have a custom pool table that has remained unused in the last few months, what a shame. We actually need to have the table re-leveled, does anyone know of someone in Boulder, CO who could do that for us?

New additions to the shop include our employee Mr. Jack Bissell. He hails to us from the great Full Cycle bike shop in town and has so far stated “That he fits into our little operation here just perfectly.”  When asked what his favorite part of working at TGM, while posting cool things like the Crosskate Inline All Mountain Neck Breaking Skate (we are still trying to understand these things, check the video below) he states: “The great level of respect everyone has for each other here and the chance to check out cool ‘Foot Hummers’ at TGM.”

Fast Tube by Casper

Well these skates are truly cool, check out the auction and win them for yourself in our eBay store: Crosskate Inline Backcountry All Mountain Ski Skates

Our groovy unused custom pool table and new frame and wheel racks - full!

Along with the addition of Jack, we have added new storage in our “Pool Table” room for the overwhelming inventory of frames and wheels we have been recieving from our consignors recently. As we travel into the new year we are starting to sell through our once large Ski, Skate and Snowboard inventory and start to focus more on the bicycle aspect of the business. A note to summer – “You can’t come soon enough!”

A new addition - more wheels and wheel racks!

Peace out from The Gear Movement, we are going to go try these neck breaking crosskates, but only after we update our health insurance plans!

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!

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!

www.arrowbicycle.com