Ritchey Blog

Christopher Stanton from the Mellow Johnny’s bike shop in Austin, TX is off on a very cool bike adventure. He’s heading to Italy to ride and document 10-15 rides this month on a Ritchey Steel Break Away Bike. Christopher has spent the past 3 weeks preparing for the trip…gear, routes, plans and is now off to Italy for the start. His routes will include a few Giro routes, some classic rides and some touring routes that he’s received from Andy Hampsten.

This is not the first time Christopher’s been out traveling around on bike. Last fall he toured from Vancouver, B.C. to San Diego, CA and most recently returned from the final leg of the 2009 Rapha Continental Tour. This trip, he’s choosing to lighten up the load (his BC to San Diego ride included 90lbs of bike with front and rear panniers) with just a bike and backpack. Enough for 2-3 days at a time.

Since he will be flying multiple flights, transporting via trains and won’t have a place to store a standard bike box, he recently purchased a Ritchey Steel Break Away Bike for this trip. He purchased the frame/fork from Nate and added WCS Alloy Logic II Bars, WCS 4-Axis Stem and WCS 1-Bolt Alloy Seatpost to finish off the Ritchey cockpit…all in Wet Black. With components and wheels added he’s looking at a sweet travel bike, minimal travel costs and this rig weighs in at just 19lb 4oz.

Christopher will be posting updates to his blog and we’re going to keep up with him as well.  Here’s his first post: The Ritchey Break Away

Lastly, here is a series of photos his friend Katrina shot just after his first test ride.

 

Our International crew in Lugano Switzerland takes their lunch ride seriously.  How serious?  The traditional lunch ride is a daily event all year long...even during winter, where they move the ride from outdoor to riding rollers in the parking garage, without fail.


A few of us US guys have visited the office and joined them on the ride.  It is a pretty pleasant 2-by-2 pace line for the "out" portion, but the return trip has a real incentive to arrive back at the office ahead of everyone -- first shower rights!


Recently, the summer heat has crimped the riding a bit, so the boys of RI decided to "go green" and ride to their favorite outdoor bar by the lake for a tasty birra.

 

The final of the Racer Bikes Cup took place in Muttenz, Switzerland and was the last test before the upcoming World Championships in Canberra.  The lead group consisting of Lukas Flückiger, Martin Gujan, Florian Vogel and Nino Schurter was formed just after the first of ten laps.  Flückiger unfortunately flatted out of the group, which reduced the leaders to a trio that stayed together until the very end.  In the sprint finish it was Nino Schurter who had the fastest legs.  He beat Gujan by a bike length.  Vogel was happy to secure his overall title of the series with a third place.


SCOTT-Swisspower team rider Patrik Gallati finished in 10th place, while a 14th place of Marcel Wildhaber was enough to hold on to his 5th place overall. With 5 victories out of 8 races and an overall 1st (Vogel), 4th (Schurter), 5th (Wildhaber) and 9th (Gallati) place, Team SCOTT-Swisspower also won the team ranking by far. A good contribution to this success came from Matthias Rupp (8 victories in 8 races) and Roger Walder (4th overall in the juniors cat.).

 

Ritchey Retail Contact, Nick Hanni, is currently building up his cross bike for this fall. Nick is going with one of our Steel Break-Away Cross Frames. He was able to secure one before any treatment from our factory.

 

Italian Mauro Santambrogio (Lampre) won the Tre Valli Varesine in Campione d'Italia, Italy, from an escape group of 12 riders. He made his winning attack with 250 meters remaining on the final climb. Italy's Francesco Masciarelli (Acqua & Sapone-Caffè Mokambo) and Russia's Alexandre Botcharov (Katusha) lost ground and finished second and third, respectively.

"Today I had a huge desire to win," said Santambrogio. "The Tour of Portugal didn't go my way and I wanted to do something here. It has been five years since my last win. This is an emotional win, near my home in Como where there are lots of people who love me."

The 186k race started in Luino and the escape group rode free of the main field just 29k into the race. Santambrogio and Marco Marzano (Lampre-NGC), Masciarelli and Luca Paolini (Acqua & Sapone-Caffè Mokambo), Botcharov, Gorazd Stangelj (Liquigas), Leonardo Bertagnolli (Diquigiovanni), Cristiano Salerno (LPR Brakes-Farnese Vini), Maurizio Biondo (Ceramica Flaminia-Bossini Docce), Filippo Savini (CSF Group-Navigare), Alessandro Proni (ISD) and Giampaolo Cheula (Barloworld) formed the group.

The rider from the team Lampe was using Ritchey WCS Logic II handlebar, WCS 4-Axis stem and a WCS Stubby Seatmast clamp.

 

Our GM (Steve Parke) has been attending Interbike since it was at the Long Beach Convention Center.  In fact we think he counts his life off in Interbike attendance and not birthdays… Here are the top 25 (plus 4 bonus) things he's learned over the years…


1.  Wash your hands regularly to prevent contracting a cold from shaking hands all day.

2.  Drink water all day, take some back to your room and drink before bed especially if you’ve been drinking alcohol that night.

3.  Make dinner plans for early in the evening, you won’t have to wait in line and you can decide to stay up late if you want to.

4.  Bring Vitamin C to boost your immune system.

5.  Bring a couple tennis balls to roll under the balls of your feet at night in your room.

6.  Get you feet above your heart for 15 minutes right after the show ends if you can, you’ll be rejuvenated before dinner.

7.  Watch out for internet charges if you tie in from your room with your laptop.

8.  Save some tape guns, boxes and packing material in the booth after set up for securing product the night the show ends.

9.  Eat protein with your breakfast; it will keep you from becoming starved by 11:00am.

10.  Bring throat lozenges for day 2 & 3.

11.  After you take the person’s business card write WHY? on the back and refer to it later.

12.  If orders originate at the show, pick one person to bring them home.

13.  Make a bag or box that is yours so when you pack up, you know to bring it home to with you.

14.  Watch your scheduled booth time. Cover your shift so others don’t have to.

15.  Schwagg hand out is greatest on Day one – measure it out for 2nd and 3rd day.

16.  Bring an Allen wrench for making on the fly adjustments and demonstrations

17.  Bring a metric tape measure for measuring things.

18.  When an appointment shows up late and you had to start presenting to another appt, fold the “late” guy in to your presentation wherever you are and then when
finished, bring the “late” guy through the first part of the line.

19.  Be on the lookout for less than honest show goers stealing out of your sample room or trade show display. Close ‘private’ booth doors behind you.

20.  Lock your trade show booth doors at night and coordinate the key for morning shift.

21.  Slow down when talking to accounts. They will hear 50 presentations at least during show, yours will be memorable if you relax the dealer and focus on the 3
main things you want them to leave understanding.

22.  We are a company that is worth doing business with, if they aren’t doing so, find out why? Those answers will help you improve.

23.  Remember to thank our customers for doing business with you.

24.  The air conditioning in the hall can get a little cool, think about an undershirt.

25.  Bottled water: please be considerate about your bottle and where you set it down.


Bonus
1.  Have Munchies to stave off hunger during show hours. Grab a handful of something when you have a break. Mints and lozenges are good too.

2.  Bring business cards. Give them out.

3.  Tidy, empty trash in an idle moment. Discard other company junk left in your booth.

4. Do not try to out drink upper managment or the folks from the Taiwan office in the evening - they do not have to be at the booth at 8am with a smily face on and you do.


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It was a rainy and cold day in mid January of 2009 when a buddy and I decided to “get in shape” this year to do the Rainer ride in August. This isn’t RAMROD (Ride-Around-Mt-Rainier-One Day), although that is a very tough and prestigious event, this is more of a NIMROD (Not-Interested-Mt-Rainier-One-Day).  Celebrating its 28th consecutive year, the (invitation only) ride originates out of the Seattle area due to the selfless efforts of one, 74 year old, tough-as-nails guy and a lot of collateral volunteer help.  Our route takes three days so we have time to enjoy the surroundings and camaraderie of the group.  Plenty of KOM’s, city limit signs and spirited paceline opportunities to satisfy the competitive, but the true heart of the ride is the shared experience and just completing the event.

I did the ride several times when I was younger, but managed to let it drift out of my life after a hip resurfacing, when a bit of laziness ensued. I work in the bike biz and have a lot of years racing/riding a bike, so I supposed it was not too surprising to find myself disinterested in slogging up a few 6,000 foot mountain passes for fun.  I simply forgot how darn much fun it is to suffer in that way; and yes I realize a lot of the uninitiated will not understand that last sentence.

I belong to a great team of mostly ex-racers who are really talented and all substantially faster than me. Without their help and encouragement, I am quite sure I would have blown off my deposit and skipped the ride in favor of playing some bad golf or just keeping up with summer yard chores. They were the voice in my head when I was logging the “lonely monk” miles in preparation.

To tip the scales in my direction, I mounted up a pair of our new 46mm SuperLogic 1420g Carbon Clinchers on my road steed. These are the best wheels I have ever used. The traditional light bladed spokes were pretty impervious to mountain thermal crosswinds, they climb much better than I do and when it came time to point them downhill, they were very aerodynamic and crazy fast – especially in a tuck.


The roar of the wind in your ears coming off a mountain pass at 45+mph is a sound you will not soon forget.
The people, the mountain, the weather, the bike and the breathtaking vistas stirred me awake again and I find myself wanting to rejoin the ride in 2010. By surrounding myself with all of this extraordinary, my average seems a bit more shiny.

- Steve Parke, Ritchey GM (USA)

 

A quick note from World Champion, Nicole Cook of Team Vision 1, as she prepares for Worlds this September.  Nicole Cooke and Team Vision 1 are outfitted with Ritchey WCS Logic II Bars, WCS 4-Axis Stems and WCS 1-Bolt Alloy Seatposts.

I have had an eventful few weeks in July, first of all was a great training camp for Vision 1 about on Lago Maggiore where we were able to spend quality time training together and also enjoying other experiences available to us in this popular cycling region. I was very proud setting off on our rides each day and seeing the whole team looking fantastic and turning heads as we rode out to start the day's training.

The camp led on to 2 races and both were very disappointing for me, although for the team there were some great results for the riders who took their opportunities with both hands and also gained alot of valuable experience. I caught a virus which totally knocked me down and my legs went from feeling great and raring to go, to feeling like jelly with no power left anymore. I pulled out of the Thuringen Tour in Germany and knew that it was important to begin recovery straight away. After a very easy week I have begun to feel better and started riding again. It is a very important to make sure I am healthy and ready to start training again as now is the time when my preparation for the World Champs begins. After a few days home in Wales I am now back in Switzerland and looking forward to the next 2 months ahead.

Tonight (1st August) is the National Day of Switzerland and there is a big party in Lugano, with fireworks in the evening and this was my last day 'off' now through to the World Champs and the end of my season at the end of September... Can't wait to start!

- Nicole