Looking for a place to train during the winter months? Tucson, Arizona is the place to be.
6 reasons why Tucson, Arizona is the best place to train during the winter months.
- Tucson’s Shoot Out is the best group bike ride in the country according to Bicycling Magazine. Many top pro riders can be found on Saturday’s Shoot Out ride. For a map of the ride check out this link: http://www.roadbikerides.com/ride/view/shootout_/77
- The weather is awesome! Yes the mornings can be a little chilly the average temperature during the day range from the 60’s to 70’s.
- Mt Lemmon Climb. The climb up Mt Lemmon is one of the best climbs in the US. Lance Armstrong trained in Tucson and was found climbing up Mt Lemmon on a frequent basis. http://www.roadbikerides.com/ride/view/mt_lemmon_/117
- For all you triathletes out there Tucson has one of the best master swim programs in the country call Ford Aquatics Masters Swimming.
- Some great early season races. The Valley of the Sun Stage race is a great early season stage race which is set for February 13th to 15th.
- Tuesday morning FairWheel Bikes group ride. This is a crazy fast 36 mile group ride. Be prepared for some suffering. www.roadbikerides.com/ride/view/fair_wheel_bikes_tuesday_group_ride/5062
If you are coming to Tucson to train check out A Guide To The Best Bike Rides In Tucson Arizona
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Popularity: 2% [?]
One of the biggest challenges for cyclists during the off season is keeping the weight off.
There is good article over on PezCycling news written by Bruce Hendler.
Bruce recommends a couple of good books on the subject:
- In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto
- Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss—and the Myths and Realities of Dieting
Popularity: 2% [?]
Posted on: November 9th, 2008 By: Ride-Strong Admin In:
Books,
Nutrition
So if you are a cyclist seeking to climb some of the craziest passes in the United States you need to get Best Cycling Climbs In The US
. Consider this the BIBLE, because it has all the major road bike climbs in the US. All the details are there: total elevation, average gradient, length and category. There are also a few scenic shots of the climbs.
I enjoyed your book and will use it during my USA travels - Chris Carmichael, personal coach of 7 time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong
Author John Summerson has written a must read book for climbing aficionados, race directors and those that aspire to test themselves on the biggest climbs in the U.S. - DailyPeleton.com
Below is a list of some of the top cycling climb bike rides that are listed in the book Best Cycling Climbs In The US. The book lists the 100 toughest USA road bike climbs from 1 to 100.
- Mt Washington, NH
- Haleakala, HI
- Onion Valley, CA
- Horseshoe Meadows, CA
- Mt. Equinox, VT
- White MTN, CA
- Mt. Baldy, CA
- Mt Graham, AZ
- Mt. Lemmon, AZ
- Palomar Mountain, CA
What is your favorite climb? Map it on www.roadbikerides.com and then comment on this post.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Posted on: September 24th, 2008 By: Ride-Strong Admin In:
Books
Hot off the press A Guide To The Best Bike Rides In Tucson, Arizona.
RoadBikeRides.com and Ride-Strong.com are proud to announce the completion of the first book of many.
Inside this book you will find:
- The 20 Best Road Bike Rides In Tucson, AZ!
- Road Bike Rides Voted Most Popular by local Tucson cyclists!
- Easy To Use maps!
- Fast Facts about each ride!
- Ride profile of each ride!
- Must-Do-Stamp - The best of the best Tucson rides!
The book will be sold in local bike shops along with Amazon.
To order the book online visit the link below:
www.trisports.com/road-bike-rides.html
Popularity: 5% [?]
Posted on: July 17th, 2008 By: Tyler Ford In:
Books
Sara Best
I had some great feedback from yesterday’s post about the world track cycling championships yesterday and I think it’s great to see that there are people out there interested in learning more about track racing. It’s a whole side of cycling that many of us fans know far too little about. I wouldn’t even begin to pretend that I’m any kind of expert in track racing but, as I said yesterday, it’s utterly thrilling to watch.
There’s a fabulous book written by Lori-Ann Muenzer called “One Gear, No Brakes” that really gives the reader a great overview of the world of track racing and even a look behind the scenes. Muenzer won the gold medal in the women’s match sprint at the 2004 Olympic games at the age of 38!
So far, across the pond in Manchester, it’s been an event for the Brits. Bradley Wiggns followed up his gold earlier this week by leading his team to another gold and a new world record in the men’s team pursuit. And, Shanaze Reade and Victoria Pendleton took the gold (and another new world) record in the women’s team sprint.
The second part of the Bobby Julich interview with Velo News is up and it’s interesting to hear his take on the battle between the UCI and ASO and what it’s doing to the sport as a whole.
Have a great weekend everyone. It’s warming up in my area of the world - time to get the bike in for a spring tune up!
Popularity: 3% [?]
Posted on: March 28th, 2008 By: sarabest In:
Books
Power meters have become the ultimate training tool for the pros, but what can one do for you? It’s simple: With every crank of the pedals, a power meter will show you how to improve your performance. But first you have to understand how to use the technology.
If you are training with a power meter or thinking about getting a power meter there is a must read. Training and Racing with a Power Meter
is the ultimate guide to training with power. Training and Racing with a Power Meter presents a wealth of information to you in a clear and concise manner. Finally!
Thinking about purchasing a power meter and don’t know which power meter to buy? The 2 most popular power meters are the Saris Power Tap SL and the SRM.
I have used both the Saris CycleOps Power Tap SL and the SRM. Although the SRM is a great power meter I would recommend the PowerTap SL for the following 3 reasons.
3 Reasons Why PowerTap SL is so Popular
1. Watts
First of all power meters are getting popular because they are way better than heart rate monitors for monitoring your training. Power output is an objective measure of exercise intensity representing the actual work you put in the pedals.
The PowerTap SL collects huge amounts of data during your training ride. These data gives you a great opportunity to optimize your training and analyze your race performance. These analyzes can be time consuming, but it is here you really get the value for your money.
2. Light weight
PowerTap SL is a lighter version of the original PowerTap. The weight is reduced by using a carbon hub shell combined with a new lightweight aluminum axle combine for the hub. The complete system now weighs 480g including computer.
Saving some weight has a lot of attention from high performing athletes, because no one wants to carry heavy equipment that doesn’t provide extra speed for their bike (at least not immediately…) The hub has a weight that is slightly heavier than Dura Ace and Campagnolo Record, but that shouldn’t have much influence on the overall performance and especially not with the current rules weight limits from UCI (minimum bike weight: 6.8kg).
3. Price
In many years SRM was the only provider of power meters, but only professionals (or rather their sponsors) were willing to pay the price of these power meter cranks. Now you can buy a Powertap SL Hub 28 hole Shimano with software
for a lower price than cheapest version of the SRM crank (amateur version).
If you are training with a Power Meter and really want to take your training to the next level also check out TrainingPeaks which is the ultimate software for cyclists and triathletes training with power, heart rate or GPS device.
Popularity: 5% [?]
The day after Christmas I was on a group ride with about 12 cyclists. We were on a two laned back road where there are few cars. The road had a small bike lane wide enough to fit one cyclist. At the time, we were riding two abreast doing a double pace-line. The left side pace-line was in the road because the bike lane was only wide enough to fit the right side of our pace-line safely. Furthermore there was some debris and bushes growing into the bike lane. So for our safety we were not all riding in the bike lane.
Crushing a long about 23 mph in our double pace-line a sheriff goes by us pulls in front of us and slams on his breaks making us almost crash into the back of his cop car. He gets out of his car with an attitude and proceeds to lecture us while threatening to give us all a ticket for riding two abreast and not staying within the bike lane. Being the day after Christmas you would think the sheriff would have been in better spirits and have better things to do than harass a few cyclists that were not doing any harm. It is not like we were riding on a busy street in the middle of traffic. We were minding our own business on a back country road with very little traffic.
As the sheriff continued to lecture and threaten us, a few of the cyclist in the group got a little fired up and began to challenge the sheriff with what the bicycling law states about riding two abreast. We went back and forth with the sheriff about our rights as cyclists debating with him the we could ride two abreast. He finally gave us a warning and we went about our group ride.
During the ride I began to think about what a jerk this sheriff was and how poorly he handled the situation. There are far more important things the sheriff could have been doing with his time instead of harassing a group of cyclist enjoying the outdoors. Santa Clause probably was not good to the sheriff so the sheriff was a little grumpy.
When I got home I decide to do a little research about what our rights in this situation really were. I stumbled upon a book called Bicycling and the Law: Your Rights as a Cyclist
BY BOB MIONSKE, JD FOREWORD BY LANCE ARMSTRONG. I ordered the book knowing it would be a good resource for various situations that come up while cycling.
On page 63 section 2-16 of Bicycling and the Law: Your Rights as a Cyclist there is a section called Riding In Formation which breaks down the law about riding two abreast.
The Uniform Vehicle Code Section 11-1206. Riding two abreast states.
Persons riding bicycles upon a roadway shall not ride more than two abreast except on paths our parts of roadways set aside for exclusive use of bicycles. Persons riding two abreast shall not impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic and, on a laned roadway, shall ride within a single lane.
The book goes on to state that how we were riding was within the law as our rights as cyclists. Next time in the situation I will tell the sherrif to go look up The Unform Vehicle Code Section 11-1206.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Posted on: December 31st, 2007 By: Tyler Ford In:
Books
Pictured above Tyler Ford with his wife Mimi Ford and Sherry Phillips before the start of El Tour de Tucson 2007.
www.Ride-Strong.com, the blog for cyclist, was founded by Tyler Ford in 2007 as the blog for www.RoadBikeRides.com.
MORE THAN $20,000 IN PRIZES UP FOR GRABS FROM ROADBIKERIDES.COM
New Site Allows Cyclists to Share The Best Rides That The U.S. Has to Offer
TUCSON– RoadBikeRides.com is a new user-friendly, interactive cycling website that allows cyclists from across the United States to share the rides that they love. At RoadBikeRides.com road cyclists can submit information on their favorite rides including tips, maps, video clips and links, and also find a new ride in their own neighborhood or in another region of the country. Visitors can register on the site for free and begin submitting or searching for rides right away.
“It’s our mission to make you feel at ease on the road, whether it’s on a new ride in your own neighborhood or whether you’re traveling far from home,” said Tyler Ford, the man behind RoadBikeRides.com. “Our detailed maps will also provide you with suggestions on where to stop and fuel up during a ride, and where to chow down when you’re done. After visiting rides that you’ve researched on our site, you’ll feel like you never left home, because you’ll know exactly where to go.”
To launch the site, RoadBikeRides.com has developed a contest with more than $20,000 in prizes that would make any cycling lover drool. Prizes will be awarded based on the number of points that visitors accumulate. Points are earned by submitting rides, photos or video clips, posting on the message boards, or submitting articles for the site blog at Ride-Strong.com. Complete contest details can be found at www.roadbikerides.com.
The contest opens when RoadBikeRides.com goes live in January 2008 and will run until the first, second and third prizes have been awarded. Prizes include:
• 1st prize is $10,000 in cash, awarded to the first person to earn 5,000 points.
• 2nd prize is a brand new top end bike Orbea Orca Bike (or substantially similar bike) with a retail value of $5,400, awarded to the second person to earn 5,000 points.
• 3rd prize is a Zipp 404 clincher wheel set (or substantially similar wheel set) with a retail value of $2,100, awarded to the third person to earn 5,000 points.
• 4th through to 10th place winners will take home a Garmin Edge 305 GPS unit (or substantially similar GPS unit) with a retail value of $380.
Tyler Ford, the founder of RoadBikeRides.com, is an avid cyclist and triathlete who has had a passion for cycling since 1988. Ford was a top-producing loan officer in Tucson, Arizona but always had a vision of getting involved in the cycling industry in a bigger way than just riding and racing his bike.
In July, 2007 Ford decided to leave his lucrative desk job in order to pursue that dream. He purchased the RoadBikeRides.com URL and founded Outdoor Activities, LLC. Today, Ford is living his dream of serving the cycling community and even sponsors local Tucson cycling teams, GST Racing and Fair Wheel Racing Team.
Popularity: 6% [?]
