Skyball Triple Assault: A Mans Ride

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Eddy wont be with us Monday but it will probably be a similar effort to chasing the King over 80K of mountain passes or bergs laden with pave.

We are riding from Wallace State (front parking lot) at 2:00. Hopefully we will have a few surprises and some refreshments on top when we finished. Going to be fun!

Eddy the phantom blogger could be there since no one knows who he is.

Club des Cingles du Mont-Skyball

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There have been many ascents of this fabled mountain as we now approach 15 Tours de Cullman. Never have we indulged in the personal suffering that precedes acceptance into the elite club of climbing Mt. Skyball three times in one day...until now. This Memorial Day we thought we’d better get some cyclists from the "team" into a rather exclusive club of climbers.

The Club for Crazies

Our new club will be modeled similar to the one of Mont Ventoux. There are many similarities between the two mountains such as the three approaches to the summit. Great races have been won and lost on the slopes of the Skyball just like Ventoux.

The Club des Cinglés du Mont-Ventoux, to use its French title, was started in 1988 by Christian Pic and has over 2,100 members: just over half are French, followed by Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and the US. Joining the club is simple: climb to the summit of Mont Ventoux three times in one day, once by each of its three access roads.

On paper the membership route looks tough. It’s not the 100 kilometres that’s the problem – it’s the fact that half of this is climbing. The classic route from Chamblees Mill is 21 kilometres at an average of 7.5%, from Nectar the same, and the third ascent is 26 kilometres at a merciful 4.7%. Skyball is 1,912 at its summit and the vertical distance for each route is 1,610, 1,570 and 1,220 respectively for a total of 4,400 of climbing over 68 kilometres. Cinglé in French means ‘crazy’ and has the synonym fou, ‘mad’. The Club des Cinglés du Mont-Skyball is literally a club for mad crazies.

2010? Next year we can take it to the next level of the club and do three plus a fourth ascent utilizing an unpaved logging road, and get a pin to wear on your jersey. Maybe we will do like Ventoux and some crazy can try to set a 24 hour record for attempts.

More details soon.

Cullman Cycling

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Since the last post I thought I better get back to cycling. For some reason when you post a picture of a female and mix in cycling I have to delete a bunch of comments posted by readers. Its all fun, sometimes you wonder what the Blog is about anyway.

I selected a few pictures from the past week or two.


This picture is called "Pain Locker"...for obvious reasons. It was taken at the Cullman Spring Classic with Austin and Country Al laying down the law. I wondered if CA would really work for Austin or if it came down to it he would drop the hammer on his own team mate.

You know we like to poke at SuperDave but I have to admit hes been riding better than I have ever seen him. I would like to say he was sucking some wheel etc., but it more accurate to say he was hammering with two very strong riders. Even though they were dropped from the lead group they blew away what was left of the peleton. The white jersey is James Hall of Team Smith Lock who had a team mate in the break and in the CSC kit ubermaster Chris Rossi.

One of our road marshalls was none other than Bill St. John. Pretty sweet ride! Bill hosts the CSC and as always, a very premier event.

The pictures below are from a training ride we did this past week. This goes back to how you meet the most interesting people through cycling. We had a couple of guests so where do you take them? Skyball Mountain. Hopefully these guys will be back for the Tour de Cullman this fall. They got a little primer this week.

Warren St. John was in from New York for a tour with his new book (somehow he escaped without me getting a signed copy). Chris Ullrich was in from California for the upcoming AMA SuperBike races at Barbers Motorsports Park. Both these guys ride very strong.

On the foothills of the famous climb. They didn't get to see it all but climbed to the top of Skyball Mountain.

Almost to the top enjoying the nice weather and calling for the team car. I think we lost a rider along the way.

European Update Please!

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Leading up to and during the Cullman Spring Classic this year one of the more mysterious and famous Cullman Cycling Blog readers was in Europe. I remember during the Classic commenting to a fellow rider about getting a text message from Paris. I was getting text messages wanting an update on how the race was shaping up and my current position.

Modern technology is amazing sometimes. I remember back in the early 80's following Paris-Roubaix or the Tour de France and there were no live feeds or anything resembling that. We would read results in USA Today or the NY Times two weeks after the race if we were lucky.

Now there is such a huge controversy from the old pros about "Race Radio", which there was never in the day. The best review I read recently was from an old pro and whether they should allow them in pro cycling. He said the use of them was 50% yes and 50%no. Strategy with them doesn't always seem fair but it seems overwhelmingly important to use them now because of safety.

"Give me an update....please!" Runonce trying to be patient at a Paris train station.

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Definitely a mistake to discuss cycling with an Italian. Seems to be a disagreement over a triple versus a compact crank set.

"Country Al" Bashes 'Em Again!

The inferno was lit early, actually Friday night.

Nashville's "Country Al" scorched the field in a very strong showing represented by Cullman Cycling Club, SmithLock, MedPlan and Team BikeWorks. More details coming soon but the brief results were:

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1. Country Al Mittlesdorf

2. David Darden

3. Austin Oliver

The early selection was made consisting Darden, Spence, Country Al, Oliver and Overton

Cullman Spring Classic: It Really Is A Big Deal

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CSC 2009: Ticket to Torture

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