Jul
25
Watching Le Tour with the Kids
Filed Under Cycling, Interbike, Racing | 2 Comments
We’ve been watching the Tour with the kids this year. Well, making them watch it, actually.
Sean, at just under 2 years, still enjoys seeing the “by ray” on TV every morning and night, but our 5 year old, Sarah, was getting a little annoyed at the round the clock bikes on the tube. Since Mommy and Daddy met on a training ride and honeymooned at the Tour back in 2000, we remind her that she probably wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for bike racing.
I really thought that the beauty and excitement of the sport was getting through to Sarah when she began remembering one of the riders’ nicknames. His was the only one that stuck and I was having fun pointing out how fast he was riding and explaining why he was riding the way he was. She even liked his light blue uniform (but T-Mobile’s pink is her favorite).
The rider’s nickname? Vino.
I’m waiting for her question: “Daddy? Where’s Vino today?”
Where do I start? Hopefully she won’t notice he’s gone. I wish I could forget he was ever in the race. Same goes for that so called “chicken.”
Shame. It was a great race up till then. Looks like it could still be with Contador, Evans and Levi now to battle it out. Now, don’t YOU guys screw things up!
Jul
24
Pedro’s Fest 2007 Report – Now More Than Ever
Filed Under Attendee News, Cycling, Industry News, Interbike, Rides | 4 Comments
A little later than I expected, but here’s my Pedro’s Fest report. I’ve been back for a week now and have been plugging away at this as I find the time, but now with the news from the Tour, I have renewed motivation. Racing is just a small part of our industry and here’s my reminder to all my industry brothers and sisters by way of describing my experiences at the 2007 Pedro’s Fest. We should all show events like this more support!
As I mentioned in my last post, Lance and I headed out to the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts to meet New England retailers and show them a little appreciation for their hard work along with our friends at Pedro’s Total Bike Care. Interbike has been at the festival in the past, but it had been maybe 5 years since the last time we were there.
The festival really has a great vibe. I’ve been to a bunch of festivals and bike events over the years, but this one just had an awesome and fun energy to it that you don’t see at most of them. Everybody, from exhibitors to attendees, really seemed to enjoy being there. Maybe it’s the lack of racing – the attitude is very relaxed and it was all about a bunch of people who love bikes hanging out for a long weekend and getting some rides in. Most attendees seemed to be camping out at the fest so the energy flowed into the night – and so did the riding, with night rides beginning at 9pm every evening.
This photo is of one of the women’s skills
classes taught by pro Alison Sydor.
The festival does an impressive job of being very family friendly and that becomes obvious with the amount of kids we saw there. We spent most of of our time at the Pedro’s tent by the trail head, and there was a constant stream of group rides going off nto the woods. They had group rides for all types of riders and skill levels that were led by pro’s and other expert instructors, but to see a group of 20, or so, 7-10 year-olds riding off into the trails behind a ride leader with parents in tow was really inspiring. They even had a “Teach your kid to Ride” class for parents. I missed that class, but managed to spend a little time chatting with the instructor, Anna, one of IMBA’s trail team crew that was there to teach the class. Lots of great tips that I can’t wait to try when I get home.
Yes, we’re in New England. A Yo Eddy!, Indy Fab
(one of MANY) and a Cannondale in attendance.
Aside from the pro-led rides, there were many other fun ‘competitions’ in the Pedro’s style: bike limbo contests. tire throwing, Dirt Rag’s Skid Mark contest and the (in)famous mud bog races. Though, with the rain a rare no-show for this year’s event, I think they had to help out the mud with a hose. Jamis brought their trials/show rider, Mike Steidley (below), who put on some impressive shows throughout the weekend.
Jamis rider Mike Steidley.
After hemming and hawing about whether to bring my riding gear, I just ended up being too busy with work leading up to the trip to decide and ended up not going prepared to ride. My heart sank a bit when Lance and I met up at the Minneapolis airport for the ever-popular Minneapolis-to-Albany flight and he had his helmet hanging off the back of his backpack. That meant that there were actual plans in place to ride. I just resigned myself to not being able to ride for a week, but Chris Zigmont, our host and head of Pedro’s, insisted that I ride and that he and his team would help me piece together everything I would would need for a ride on Saturday with “this guy Mark” who knows the roads around here pretty well. Not holding out much hope, I half-heartedly went along with it.
It turns out that the bike industry is capable of showing alot of love to one of its own as I was able to put together a complete kit from shoes, socks, gloves and shorts from Mavic-adidas, jersey from Pedro’s and bike (the sweet new Madone) and helmet from Trek. I am truly grateful to the people involved at these companies for helping me go on an awesome 40 mile ride through the Berkshires with Mark who turned out to be long time pro (and New England legend and current territory manager for Fuji Bicycles), Mark McCormack. I’ll have to do a separate post about this ride and what went into getting all my gear together. I can’t believe that I was able to have such a great ride after just “eye-balling” my position on the bike and cleats on my shoes! Many thanks to all who helped me out. I hate asking for help, so I was more than a little embarrassed by all the love I was shown.
Mark McCormack and Lance Camisasca.
I have to wrap this up to get to a meeting, but I want to close by saying thanks to the great team at Pedro’s Total Bike Care. They are all great people that love bikes and work hard together to promote their brand and their brand’s commitment to the environment. Chris and his crew really are setting the standard for their pledge to make their products and practices as environmentally friendly as possible. As a quick example, all of the (very tasty) food served at the dealer reception we both hosted was harvested or produced within 50 miles of the festival site. All of the veggies and meats were from local farms and even the soda pop (as us New Englanders call it) was from a local manufacturer and made from all-natural ingredients. Bravo, Pedro’s!
Jul
5
A Little Love for Bike Shops at Pedro’s Fest
Filed Under Attendee News, Cycling, Interbike, Rides | 1 Comment
If you work at a bike shop, Interbike would like to invite you to attend Pedro’s Fest this year and enjoy a little VIP treatment while you’re there! In partnership with our friends at Pedro’s, we want to show you shop guys and gals out there a little appreciation for all the hard work you do.
Lance (IB’s show director) and I are looking forward to heading out to Western Massachusetts (Hancock, exactly) next week (July 13-15) to hang out with our retailer friends and try to lavish a little attention on all you guys that toil away as owners, managers, wrenches or sales associates in all the great shops of the New England and the Northeast! If you want to come from farther away, by all means, come on out and enjoy the fun!
Interbike and Pedro’s will be co-hosting a reception for retailers on Saturday night of the festival at 6pm with drinks and appetizers. We’re really looking forward to hanging out with you retailers and enjoying some good music while soaking up some of the awesome New England biking scene. There’s also going to be a bike shop employee-exclusive ride on Saturday morning with a special guest ride leader. We’ll also have some great schwag from Interbike and Pedro’s to hand out.
I can’t wait to get back out Mass since I went to college there and spent a few years in Boston after graduating. Also can’t wait to see what Hancock looks like without snow and freezing rain. Last time I was there was for the Jiminy Peak road race about 9 years ago and I had to pull out after one lap in the freezing rain. It took me about 20 minutes of sitting my car with the heat on to stop shivering and that was May! The problem was, that morning down where I lived in Southern Connecticut, it was in the high 60’s so I didn’t pack enough warm clothes. I learned my lesson about Jiminy Peak that day. I think Tyler Hamilton won the pro race there that year, if my memory serves me right. The Berkshires in July should be warm and beautiful, though.
The first 50 shop employees (an their mates!) to register get in free, courtesy of Pedro’s. The next 50 get half off the regular entry free. After that, for every 5 that register from a shop, the 6th gets in free. Retailers will also enjoy express VIP check-in at the event. You’ll need the secret retailer password to register as a retailer at BikeReg.com. If you work at a shop and didn’t get one of my emails last week with the password, check to see if someone else there did get it. If not, email update(at)interbike(dot)com from your shop email address and I’ll send it to you.
Definitely come on out to the Pedro’s Festival. There’s tons of great rides to go on (XC, downhill and road) led by pro riders (including the Luna Chix with Alison Dunlap) and and there’s a great expo area with alot of great manufacturers showing off their latest gear. Trek is also sponsoring Tour de France coverage at the fest so you won’t have to miss a bit of the racing action.
After that weekend, I’m planning to head towards Boston to pay a visit to as many shops as I can get to in the area to thank them for coming out to Interbike each year – or find out why they haven’t been in a while (be nice!). Massachusetts has some awesome shops and it’s been about 6 years since I had the pleasure of being able to set foot in one of them. I spent many hours drooling over all the frames hanging on the walls at Belmont Wheelworks back in my early days of riding and racing.
I’m debating whether to lug my bike along and get in a ride or two in my old stomping grounds around Boston… I don’t have one of those cool Ritchey Breakaway bikes, and my 64cm Fuji (yes, 64) takes an XL Bike Pro case that doesn’t fit in many rental car trunks…
Anyway, it should be a great time. Stop by and say hi to us Interbike guys if you’re heading off to Pedro’s Fest.