Tour Preparations

I love the Dakota Building...its architechture and history. I took this picture early in the morning with a twin reflex.

This is not about the Tour de Cullman other than the date will likely be the last weekend in October. I am a true believer in preparations, if you prepare properly you have nothing to complain about race day. Do your homework no matter how you finish you can say you did everything you could to prepare. I love the equation that's involved in any event that brings you success. To me its a combination of psychology and physiology. It’s all about confidence.

I was very fortunate a few years ago in my preparations for the World Triathlon Championships to spend significant time before the races in France to train on the actual routes and get acclimated to the climate and time changes. The first year I was not so fortunate. I had been racing successfully as an amateur and thought it was time to test myself internationally. Early in the sport of triathlons Europe began to offer the best races not only for prize money but also prestige. I think with their history of bike racing the sport there brought sponsorship and support that was not in the United States. The first true world championships took place in Nice, France, which quickly became the richest race and the most prestigious.

The race took place in early October and I had qualified during the summer. The plan was to travel over to France with a quick stop in New York. Some very creative promoters dreamed up a great race the weekend before in New York City. The swimming from the Statue of Liberty, cycling around Manhattan and running through central park. It was immediately sold to TV and became a big money race for the pros. The race ranks up there on the memories list, a huge race broadcast on NBC billed as The New York City Triathlon. I thought I had made the big time.

For the swim start we were ferried out to the Statue of Liberty and the course was to cross the Hudson River to Battery Park. It was two miles into the dark waters to our bikes, only a huge 25' red balloon to guide us to the landing. I will never forget passing through a "soft spot" in the water during the swim. Later a native who told me no one swims in the Hudson river said I really didn't want to know what that was, glad I was in the zone because I hit several spots during the swim. The swim went well and I came out of the water in the lead pack with a great 2 mile time.

On the bike we rode down the West Side Highway to the George Washington Bridge and made a loop through Manhattan. It was incredible to ride in the city with the traffic stopped for the race. We biked in to Central park and ran around the park for a 7 mile run. The race ended at Tavern on the Green. There were thousands there at the finish and although I had a total meltdown on the run I finished a respectable time and a place I won’t mention.

I was totally baked and beaten. All that was in the back of my mind was my flight to Europe the next day and the race one week away in the Maritime Alps. I hobbled over to the refreshment tent and unfortunately ran into a couple of female pros that I should have been hiding from. You make friends on the race circuit along the way, seeing each other at races and sharing the fun. I forgot I made a promise to these two that I would go out dancing with them after the NYC race.

I was known for my sleeping habits before and after races, I caught a lot of grief because I would be the first in bed the night before an event and then after a race I wanted to just go back to the hotel and lay in front of the air conditioner and recline.

I won’t name any names but the fun began at the post race party and we all had a great time. After several beers I was informed that I needed to shower because we were heading out on the town. I think my flight to Paris was leaving at 900am the next morning. What was that dance place called? The Odeon...they had done their research, it was a happening place and it didn't get really going till midnight. I felt like I had knives in my legs. Every time I mentioned that I really needed to turn in because I was leaving early in the morning another drink mysteriously showed up.

Somehow that night I made it back to my hotel. Race days were always long days, typically you got up at 400am the race started at 700am you raced all day maybe got a nap in and partied that night, it was a tough weekend. In the back of my mind I kept telling myself I could sleep on the plane that actually being tired would help me sleep for the 8 hour flight. I would like to say I got in bed early but I don't know I think I got 30mins sleep to get up and leave by 600am to make my flight.

The real fun began on Sunday when I was supposed to leave via JFK and my flight was delayed. Nothing like the security today but on international flights you had to be early. I was on the plane and after sitting for what seemed all day we were informed that our flight was cancelled because of mechanical issues. The passengers were told that we would be deplaning and taken by bus back into the city and staying at the luxurious George Washington Hotel.

I don’t even remember where the hotel is or was but it was interesting to say the least. I was so exhausted and I remember checking in and falling asleep only to be awakened by the fire alarm. Monday morning I was standing on the sidewalk at 3:00 am wondering about my race and if I might actually make it to France.

To be continued...


I did make it to the race. Some illegal pacing going on behind me in Nice, France. This was my first World Championships. I learned so much on how to prepare.

The Badger and the Cannibal

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What does Eddy Merckx and Tom Oliver have in common? They both climbed Mount Ventoux...We write so much about Tom's son Austin who just happens to be racing at the Nationals this weekend for Juniors, what about his dad?

Tom wore his Cullman Cycling kit with honor as he crossed the summit of Mount Ventoux. He was in France part of the Trek Tour de France Experience, from what I understand the riders ride the stages before the actual Tour de France professional race. What a great concept and I am sure experience.

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Sometimes we forget about who's behind the scenes working hard making things work for someone else (Austin's dad) my hats off to Tom Oliver....Job well done!

De Rosa Project

A few years ago when I first got into bicycle racing I began searching for the ultimate road racing frame set. My mentor Jacques told me that whenever in Europe I must go see the "House of De Rosa". Ugo De Rosa had hand built bicycles for Eddy Merckx and was considered the master and a true artist of hand built bicycles.

I was traveling on a cycling/camping trip in Europe soon after and I ventured to the House of De Rosa in outside Milan, Italy. What was interesting at the time, De Rosa was still working out of their original factory which was located at their farm outside Milan. As usual I was totally lost when I got to Milan and after a day of wrangling with Italian, English and French I found the proper road to their home and shop. The thing I will never forget was wandering through the country side and seeing pink roses beautifully painted on a mail box and post. That's when I knew I had reached my destination. The De Rosa family lived on a small farm north of Milan and their shop was actually in a converted barn behind the main house.

On another post I will get deeper in to DeRosa, but I was amazed how easy it was to just walk into their factory and home. Much of what Jacques educated me on started making sense about their passion of building bicycles. The whole family was involved in every aspect of the company. They lived, breathed, ate, drank, building the finest handbuilt bicycles. They were great hosts and welcomed me like I was the most important person to come visit them. Ugo's son Christano spoke good English and explained how they loved seeing cyclists and especially Americans, and rarely did they have visitors which amazed me.

Ugo did most of the talking with Christano translating. He educated me on the differences of their frames, never knocking a competitor but just stating why they did certain things. An example was the use of nickel versus brass on brazing. De Rosas are known for their smooth welds and perfect lines. Each bike is inspected by Ugo himself before it leaves the factory.

The whole experience was incredible and one of those things in life which cost nothing but you were educated and experienced something that you could not put a price tag on. Of course I left the factory with my wallet a little lighter. I was measured and had a custom De Rosa Professional built. With their building to such perfection they were of course six weeks behind on building frames, so my frame arrived in the USA two months after my visit.

Below are some before and after pictures of a De Rosa I am currently restoring. The bike originally was a green and white two tone which was common for the bikes, I decided to paint it Molteni orange like the Merckx frames. I am going to restore it with Campagnolo Super Record which would be the correct vintage for the age of the frame. We are fortunate to have a great painter here in town who did a fantastic job. I bought the decals and he did a great job of clear coating them after painting the frame.


The before shot showing the fading green and white, not bad considering the frame is 20 years old. The tubing is Columbus steel, but not SLX. Many of the bikes of that vintage were SL/SP combination which provided superior strength to weight ratio.

The after shot, sporting Molteni orange and vintage decals. The frame spaced 126mm which identifies the age and the fact it was built for probably 6 speed. Note the "Beefy T" fork a De Rosa design trademark.

I will try to post some pictures as the bike comes together. I am trying to keep it as vintage correct as possible.

Skyball (X3)

Memorial Day in the blistering humid heat, nine bikers set out for a triple assault on Skyball Mountain. There were several rides done locally but most of the local cycling scene decided to stay away from this ride.

The tempo from the go was a little fast thanks to Austin, who's in the middle of training block preparing for a stage race next weekend. James Hall and Chris Rossi fell right in with Austin so for the rest of us it was going to be a long day.

We rode down Highway 31, and turned on "Racehorse Johnson Parkway" one of the most beautiful roads to cycle on in Alabama. RJP heads toward Skyball Mountain and is the road used in the Tour de Cullman. The road unfortunately rolls up.

We turned off RJP and began the first climb up the mountain. The road just seems to go up into the sky and actually is one of the steeper grades on the mountain. We all survived that pretty well and of course Austin and James disappeared over the horizon.

Recovering from the first climb, the second part of the ascent which is about a mile straight up takes you over the mountain and down the back side into the town of Nectar. With one climb of Skyball done its time to do the second assault.

From Nectar we back tracked to Joy road and began the second ascent of Skyball using the now famous climb used in the Tour de Cullman. I think we all felt this climb and had some nice thigh busting action as we ascended over the twisting one lane road that gets harder as you get closer to the top. This version of the climb is the longest which is 4 miles.

Just when we were all about pop you somehow make it to the top for the completion of the second ascent. We then back tracked and reversed back down the mountain to begin the final climb, number 3. We reversed what we had just done and climbed back up the mountain on the back side.

This was the roughest part of the whole day and the climb went slowly. I was struggling but moving forward and for some nice motivation, could hear the rumble in the background of some violent weather on the way.We all made it to the top for the third time and regrouped for our ride back to Hanceville. I think for everyone it was a lot of fun but also some really brutal climbing and a great challenge.

The photo above shows Billy Faulk in the CCC kit, he was very generous and not only did the ride but provided support and refreshments on top of Skyball.

We reversed our ride out and returned on RJP and Highway 31. About the time we hit Garden City it started pouring down rain and lightning. The only thing close to enjoyable was the 40 mph tail wind we had as we hammered up 31. It got a little more fun with the bolts of lightning were hitting all around and you could see about 6 inches in front yourself.

Mr. Faulk showed his generosity again by providing us with some nice refreshments and a cookout at his house in town.


Some decals were made for the survivors of the epic ride. There will be a few more that attempt and survive the triple assault so we have a badge waiting for them.

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.