Last weekend, I headed out for a weekend with good friends at a cabin in Yosemite National Forest. Being a guy that does not like to miss a great opportunity to ride, I brought my bike along to get in a few morning rides!
Having never been to Yosemite before, I dug into some maps of the area and found a few nice loops to hit up while there. Saturday morning I headed out for my solo ride. I started out on Highway 41 and was climbing almost immediately. I thought my first turn was closer to the cabin, but hadn't seen anything resembling a rideable road, so I aborted my mission of staying on the planned route. I settled in for a long and steady climb in the crisp morning air. After taking a short break at the top of the 6-mile climb, I turned around and bombed my way back down the mountain in effort to find that original turn that I missed on the way up.
After asking for directions from an employee at a local market, I was off again. The reason I missed it the first time around was because it was a small service road that starts out going directly through the 9-hole golf course (I thought it was the cart path). Unfortunately, the maps and the attendant said nothing of gravel roads. But I decided to continue on...
The start of Chowchilla Road
The gravel didn't last too long before the road surface turned into a nice dirt hardpack road. There were still several partially exposed rocks as well as somewhat thick/deep dirt sections, but I pushed on...and up and up. Working on my balance all the way up to give my WCS Race Slick tires some grip on the dirt. I surprisingly had very limited slippage, but definitely would have preferred either a cyclocross or mountian bike for this one. Most of the way up was a slow crawl and I was thinking about the slow crawl back down the descent that was looming in my near future.
Once I hit the Summit Campground I decided to turn around and head back down to the cabin. Summit Campground's elevation is 5,800 feet and I could definitely feel the altitude taking it's toll on me.
The way down was not your typical downhill reward you get when out on the road...this one was a brake grabbing, less than 10mph experience (almost as slow descending as it was ascending). As I carefully took quick looks out into the forest at some of the views, I fell victim to an exposed rock and hit the dirt. I was ok...a couple scratches, but It was a bit comical and I would have loved to have seen an instant replay of the crash.
My left shifter took on some sharp rocks and was pushed inward quite a bit, but my SuperLogic II Carbon bars came out unharmed!
All said and done, it was a fantastic ride (even with the crash) and I definitely earned the brunch that was waiting for me back at the cabin.
In trying conditions Vicki Whitelawk, of the Ritchey sponsored Team Vision 1, finished 4th on Stage 3 of the International Thüringen-Rundfahrt yesterday and moved up to 8th overall.
A 125km loop near the town of Schleiz, Germany, the third stage was run in wet, muddy conditions. The rolling climbs and rough descents splintered the peloton into a number small groups over the course of the race. A group of 15 riders broke away on one of the climbs with Whitelaw included in the selection.
Two riders were able to escape the group and ride solo to the finish. Whitelaw found herself sprinting for third place. There was a final corner 300m from the finish which the rain made treacherous. After the finish Whitelaw said she "descended well and kept my focus on the right hand corner, careful to not over analyse it but to take it wide and smoothly. I survived it and then was faced with an uphill sprint, trying to claw my way back to Eva. I was gaining on her, but ran out of road and she crossed in third with me finishing 4th."
Today's stage consists of a 23 kilometre individual time trial.
Results: 1 Villumsend Serup (Team Columbia HTC) 2 Duster Sarah (Cervelo Test Team) 3 Lechner Eva (Gauss RDZ Ormu-Calnago 4 Whitelaw Vicki (Vision 1) 34 Verhoeven Aurore (Vision 1) 37 Cooke Nicole (Vision 1) 43 King Dani (Vision 1)
Ritchey USA's GM - Steve Parke (fifth from the right), invited his team to a little challenge on Saturday 7/18 - an 18 mile hill climb race up Mt Hamilton to Lick Observatory at 4,200 feet elevation. The "rabbits" got a 10 minute head start before the "hounds" gave chase. Like many clubs, 650 Racing has a mix of master's and young bucks who love to ride together united by a true love of the sport. No surprise, the hounds caught the rabbits with a nice chance to regroup at the top and swap tales of prowess and demise.
One product note: The SuperLogic 46mm Carbon clinchers on Sparke's bike were flawless on the 45 minute descend in 85 degree heat.
Nick and Nate got out for an epic 5-hour, 56 mile mountain bike ride over the weekend. Nick snapped some shots from up and around the North Bay’s beautiful Mt. Tamalpias. “Mt. Tam” is a North Bay gem for all cyclists…road and/or mountain.
View of the Golden Gate Bridge from the Headlands moments before they turned around and dropped down into the Tennessee Valley.
The view of what’s to come…plenty of climbing to reach the summit of Mt. Tam.
Cruising along the few sections of pavement the day provided.
The Ritchey sponsored, SCOTT-Swisspower team was recently on a successful medal hunt at the Swiss nationals.
Florian Vogel defended his title in an impressive way. While Andri Frischknecht becomes vice-champion in the U17 category and Roger Walder won the bronze in the junior’s competition.
This was the first time the National Championship was held in the mountain city of Chur, Switzerland. Going into the event there were four big favorites, but only three medals to give away. World Champion, Christoph Sauser found that the course’s one long climb and one rough descent was suited to his favor. Nino Schurter, who resides only meters away from the start-finish, was a hometown favorite. Ralph Näf, with his great world cup results in 2009, was the man to beat. Lastly, Florian Vogel wanted to defend his title badly after his to victories proved he is back on top. Not to mention Lukas Flückiger and Martin Gujan, who both great pics to medal too.
Here’s how it unfolded: The pace was tremendously high from the beginning. Soon, it was clear that Sauser and Schurter were out for the title. Unfortunately, Nino had been fighting bronchitis for two weeks, while he was back to good health for the race he still had a hard time breathing. About a third of the way into race the two friends, Gujan and Vogel, had a gap on Flückiger and Näf. About half way into the race Vogel was looking confident as he got away for a long solo. At first the gap to Gujan stayed within 20 seconds. On the last three laps nothing was holding the reining champion back and he went on to win by almost two minutes.
After some struggles in the world cup season, this impressive performance shows that Florian Vogel is back on the level he was last year. Just in time to defend his European champion title next weekend in Zoetermeer, Holland. Martin Gujan definitely earned his silver medal and Lukas Flückiger completed the podium. The other favorites Näf (4th), Sauser (5th) and Schurter (6th) had to go home without medals.
In his best race of this season, Andri Frischknecht won the silver medal in the U17 race. After bronze in cyclo-cross, this is his second medal at nationals this year. Junior Roger Walder won the bronze. Both, Andri and Roger can compete for the title again next year, since they are at a younger age.
The only category the team was not in the medals was U23. Patrik Gallati in 9th was not quite there and Matthias Rupp had to quit after a crash, which resulted in two flat tires. Marcel Wildhaber had a tough weekend also, where just hours before Nationals, he won the Gigathlon multi-sport event (two days of racing). This tough course was definitely too much to add on for the weekend as he had to quit with cramps in his legs.
What’s next for SCOTT-Swisspower? We are looking forward to the upcoming European Championships and Frischi will give a short comeback, competing at the “All Mountain World Championships” in Downieville, California.
"THE RIDE We expected to feel some additional flex in the bottom bracket due to the coupling being so close to the bottom bracket, but we were pleasantly surprised to find little or no difference between the Break-Away and a non-folding bike. The combination of the titanium front triangle mated to the carbon rear and WCS fork made for one of the smoothest riding bikes to come through the RBA offices. All-day comfort was exceptional, and the bike's balance offered solid handling in virtually all situations. While not super stiff, the Break-Away climbed extremely well with a snappy feel in and out of the saddle. Descending was equally impressive, as the smooth ride aided in the feeling of control and encouraged us to tackle descents with increased speed."
"THE VERDICT The Ti/Carbon Break-Away is a great, no-compromise bike that happens to fold up for easy transport. Its light weight and quick breakdown time make it ideal if you travel and don't want to sacrifice performance and ride quality."
Our new Echelon Pedal was recently reviewed in the July 2009 issue of ROAD Magazine.
This pedal is not yet available for sale, but don't fret it will be available very soon. Look for more on this pedal early fall.
"Click and release. Ritchey Echelon Pedals Cue the music and the slow motion. Flailing and falling in an ungraceful way, "Jim" falls to the floor amidst onlookers in their cars. He narrowly avoided a road nap, and perched back up and sped off to avoid the laughter. Picture it: on the asphalt in a bright jersey and Lycra. The clipless pedal was a tough go early on, but since then the choices have become endless it seems. The Echelon follows the same approach that Ritchey implements for everything they design: function, high quality, good design and affordable pricing. The Echelon's incorporate an alloy body with carbon/nylon rear claw, 5 degree float with LOOK Keo type cleats, adjustable tension, a cromoly spindle, and the ever-popular needle bearings for optimal load distribution. I particularly love the large platform and the low stack height which puts you right into the action. Sometimes the Ritchey simplicity is all you need! WEIGHT: 240g. PRICE: $180 CONTACT: ritcheylogic.com"
The cycling season is about to hit its climax with The Tour de France starting this coming Saturday. Cyclists everywhere are buzzing with excitement. This year’s tour consists of 21 stages including several tough mountain stages through to the finish in Paris. Ritchey sponsored team, Silence-Lotto is geared up and ready for the tour.
Cadel Evans, who finished second in the 2007 and 2008 Tour de France, is a serious favorite for overall victory in this year’s race.
Cadel will be riding a Canyon Ultimate CF SLX bike spec'd out with Ritchey WCS Logic II Handlebar, WCS 4-Axis Stem and a WCS 1-bolt Seatpost. The designers from Canyon have created a custom-paint job in the Austrailian's national colors
Cadel will also be riding on Canyon’s newly developed Speedmax TT bike. Notice that the stem is screwed into the headtube itself, rather than the traditional setup where the stem attaches to the top of the headtube. This combined with the WCS Interval TT Bars will help Cadel cheat the wind during this year's Individual Time-Trials, as well as the Team Time-Trial.
Submit Your Story
Email Us your Ritchey product and Break Away stories and images for possible posting to our Ritchey Blog
