If you know it well, it could mean a $50, $75 or $100 gift certificate from Lee’s! All you have to do is pick the winners of four of the competitions awarded at this year’s Tour de France, plus a couple of tiebreaker questions in the event that this proves too easy for the experts amongst us!

Competitions
Yellow Jersey – General Classification (overall winner)
Green Jersey – Points Competition (best sprinter)
Polka Dot Jersey – King of the Mountains Competition (best climber)
Best Team Competition (no jersey awarded)

Tiebreakers
#1) Who will win Stage 15 from Pamiers to Bagneres-de-Luchon? (It’s a 187.5 km stage with an above-category climb and a very tricky descent to the finish)
#2) Who will win Stage 19, the individual time trial?
#3) How many minutes and/or seconds will Lance Armstrong finish behind the overall winner in the general classification? (Enter :00 if you think he’ll win it all!)
You will have until Stage 7 (end of the day on July 10th) to submit your entry!

Prizes
1st Place – $100 gift certificate
2nd Place – $75 gift certificate
3rd Place – $50 gift certificate
Stop into Lee’s North, Lee’s South or the Trek Store in Loveland and ask to fill out an entry form. Good luck!

The City of Fort Collins has put together this excellent guide on the basics of city riding and how to avoid common crashes. We wanted to share these great resources with you.

Basics of City Riding
How to Avoid Common Crashes

We’ve also beefed up our event calendar. There is now an intro to road riding class, beginner mountain biking class and a new night ride. Be sure to check our event calendar so that you can take advantage of all these new events.

Bye now, I gotta go ride.

I believe the best thing possible to do for your bicycle, is to clean your bike properly. For the longest part of my career as a mechanic I never knew how to clean a bike properly. I wish someone had shown me this earlier.

Tool List:
2- 5 gal buckets
1 – Hose
1 – Set of brushes i.e. Park or Pedro’s
1 – Sponge
1 – Water soluble degreaser – i.e. Simple Green
1 – Mild degreaser, I use Pedro’s
1 – Dish Soap, I prefer Dawn
1 – Bike Stand or method of hanging your bike
A few clean rags

Step 1 – Preparation
Prepare the buckets. Fill your buckets ½ way with water and place the water soluble degreaser and a stiffer brush in one bucket; dish soap, the other brushes, and the sponge in the other bucket. Hang your bike in the stand and remove the wheels.

Step 2 – Washing the Wheels and Stanchions
Begin by holding your rear wheel at a 45 degree angle with the cassette facing down. Spray the degreaser on to the cassette. MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT GET ANY DEGREASER ON TO THE WHEEL OR THE TIRE. (This is Tip #1 with cleaning bikes. I will explain it later.) Lean the rear wheel against an object to let the degreaser work. Start washing the front wheel by using a brush or sponge from the dish soap bucket. I typically wash the tire and rim edge on both sides, followed by the rim in between the spokes, and then the hub. When washing the wheel inspect the tire for cuts, wear, or other sorts of damage. When starting with the rear wheel clean the cassette first with a stiff brush or the drive train brush, but make sure that none of the degreaser or grease gets onto the rim or tire. After you are done with the cassette wash the rear wheel as you did the front. Rinse both the wheels and set them aside to air dry. By washing the wheels first you keep contaminates off of the tires, tire glue, or disc rotors, which are the most vulnerable to contamination. If you are washing a mountain bike with suspension, this is the time to use a clean rag to wash the stanchions (legs of the fork). Using even a slightly dirty rag can contaminate your stanchions. Your stanchions have very small pores that help to lube the seals when the fork is being used. You want to keep them clean.

Tip #1 – Use the mildest washing agent as possible.
Use dish soap on bikes and degreasers on drive trains. A degreaser WILL matte your anodized rims, matte your finish on your bike, and eat the glue on tubular tires. It is too harsh for normal washing of your bike. And yes Simple Green is a degreaser. I understand Simple Green is a great product and is very mild, but I do know for a fact that it will matte the finish of some high end wheels.

Step 3 – Cleaning the Drive Train
Your bike should be in the stand, with its wheels off, and be begging to be cleaned. Insert a dummy axle or Pedro’s Chain Keeper into the rear drop out of your bike. If you don’t have either you can use a quick release, just make sure not to tension it to much, and damage the frame. Spray the degreaser onto the drive train and let it sit for a minute to work. REMEMBER TIP #1. Do your best to limit the amount of degreaser that gets onto the frame. Clean the drive train with the brush out of the degreaser bucket. Make sure not to put in the dish soap bucket or to cross contaminate. The order in which you clean the drive train isn’t important. What is important is that you do it the same way every time, so that you develop the habit of washing it thoroughly and correctly. When done cleaning the drive train, rinse it off.

Tip #2 – Develop Processes
If you develop orders of doing things, not only do you become faster and more efficient, you become more reliable. This allows you not to forget steps of doing complicated processes. This tip can apply to many different aspects of bicycle maintenance, i.e. overhauls, washing, and tune ups. Many times there is no correct order of doing things, but their can be incorrect orders.

Step #4 – Washing the Frame
Begin washing your frame with the dish soap bucket and its sponge/brushes. There are many different orders to washing your bike frame. I prefer to start at the top and work my way down, forward to back. Just remember Tip #2, develop a process. You will also see in the brush kits (Park or Pedro’s) there are different size and shapes of brushes. It’s not hard to use your imagination for their use when cleaning your bike. The best one to remember is that the long skinny brush is great for getting into the brake area’s; around frame arches, brake calipers, and other hard to reach spots. If you notice greasy build up on your frame around your drive train area, chances are you are using to much lube. Rinse the frame of when you are done. Don’t spray a direct stream of water into area’s that have bearings.

Tip #3 – Don’t spray pressurized water into bearings, pivots, or any moving part. This could blow the grease out of your bearings, introduce water into sealed bearings, or push dirt further into a moving part. If dirt is introduced to bushings or bearings, they wear quicker and parts will need replaced sooner.

Step #5 Dry the Bike
I like to wipe as much water as easily possible and let the bike air dry. With the wheels, let them air dry most of the way, take them and bounce them on the ground a few times to knock off the few remaining drips of water. This should give them a spotless look.

Summary
Cleaning the bike is a very important step to maintaining your bike. It is also the first step of a tune up or any other complex procedure. When you clean your bike it allows you to inspect for damage and wear. If you can catch a worn or damaged part early, chances are you will be replacing fewer parts on your bike and minimizing costs. As you know a damaged or worn part usually will cause other parts to wear much quicker.

I personally remember my first climb up Rist Canyon distinctly. I was with a group of Lee’s employees shortly after I moved here in 2005. I had never ridden a long climb like that before, much less a long climb that became so steep at the very top after I was already so tired.

I stopped at probably the steepest part of the climb and I couldn’t get back on my bike. It was so steep that I couldn’t get the pedals to turn over before I thought I would fall down. I remember Tyson had to push me to get me going again. In some ways it was humiliating, but really it was an experience that made me a stronger more resilient cyclist.

During the MS 150 training ride this weekend I had the opportunity to accompany Paula on her first ride up some of Northern Colorado’s toughest climbs. She did great. I knew she was hurting, but I had her get in her lowest gear and just keep pedaling. At one point I worried that I was annoying her, because I was chanting, “pedal, pedal, pedal.” But I knew if she stopped it would be hard to get started again especially on the steeper gradients.

Paula made all the climbs and here are some pictures of her enjoying the views from the top.

This is a shout out to Paula for doing a great job on Sunday. Good luck at the MS 150, girl.

Then of course a day later, Lance crashes out of the Tour of California. Bicycling magazine had a video showing his difficult decision to abandon the race. Unfortunately it is no longer available. It was clear that Lance was in pain, bleeding and his eye was swelling shut which was probably the main reason he had to drop out.

Lee’s also wishes a speedy recovery to the many local racers who crashed this week.

So you think that racing is just for the pro’s?
Next weekend we have a hill climb race up Northern Colorado’s most storied climb, Rist Canyon. There is both an ACA licensed division as well as a citizen’s race. Lee’s staff will have a tent west of the feed zone in Belview. Please stop by if you need anything.

She came into the store with her boyfriend/husband and it was obvious that this was something they wanted to do together. What I loved most was her commitment to getting into riding. She genuinely wanted to make riding a part of her life and I got to be the lucky person to help her get started.

Personally, that’s what I’ve always loved about working at a bike shop. I believe there is such a shear joy in riding but the joy is even better when you get to share it with someone else.

I remember the person who got me into riding. Sometimes I wonder, had we not met would I still be 25 pounds overweight and gasp, smoking. Would I not understand the joys of riding as a form of transportation or the pounds of CO2 that I didn’t spew into the air?

With that, I remind you to share the joy of riding. Riding is great, but it’s always more fun to share. Just think, maybe you could be the catalyst for change in someone’s life.

I know some of you reading this probably think I am a sissy. But maybe you have a spouse, significant other, sister or maybe even an out of shape friend who you want to introduce to mountain biking. Let me give you some do’s and don’ts on how to introduce someone to mountain biking.

I’ll start with the don’t list
• Don’t take them someplace where it is very rocky. Rocks are very intimidating to newbie’s. Start them on smooth trails where they can get a feel for their bike.
• Don’t take any skill for granted. For you hopping a curve may seem instinctive, but for someone who hasn’t done it before it can be a bit intimidating. Find a small curve or other obstacle and build up to larger curbs and logs.
• Don’t just tell them momentum is their friend – show them. Progression is key here so that the rider can understand how the bike moves beneath them.

Do List
• Tell them to look where they want to the bike to go and not at the obstacle they want to avoid.
• Focus your weight on your feet and not on the seat. When going down something steep think “boobs to the tube” (top tube that is.)
• Use your whole body to propel the bike. Sometimes you will feel like you are throwing or pushing your handlebars over the top of a hill or obstacle.
• Use your gears and downshift before heading up a short steep hill, but don’t be afraid to stand up and power over the top.

I know that I’ve only scratched the surface with my tips. These are some of the ideas that have helped me. Please chime in with other tips in the comments below.

The worse part is that I donned my aero-gear, pointy helmet and all and still came in last place. Aero equipment only works if you are going fast. So I guess this means it is time for me to tune up my engine. I wanted to give you some hints on how you can tune up your engine and get ready for an enjoyable summer riding season.

Step one; get some base miles on the bike. This winter was cold and like many of you, I hate riding the trainer. So I am lacking base miles. The good news is that base miles don’t all have to be long slogging rides. You can actually accumulate a base by just riding around town or better yet to work everyday. If you can also get a 2-4 hour ride in on the weekend you will have a great base in as little as 6-12 weeks.

Step two; hill repeats, yes I said it, hill repeats are the key to getting faster and stronger on the bike. I found a great article on active.com entitled, 12 Weeks to Stronger Cycling. I really liked the progression that I saw here. If there is an interest, I would be willing to lead rides from Lee’s South on Thursdays to Stadium hill to complete this workout. Leave a comment below and let me know if you would prefer to leave at 5:30 or 6 pm if you are interested. I would be looking to start these workouts May 6.

Here’s the weekly progression:

Week 1 4 x 30-sec. hill sprints w/ 2-min. active recoveries
Week 2 6 x 30-sec. hill sprints w/ 2-min. active recoveries
Week 3 8 x 30-second hill sprints with 2-minute active recovery
Week 4 (Recovery) 6 x 30-second hill sprints with 2-minute active recovery
Week 5 6 x 1-minute hill sprints with 2-minute active recovery
Week 6 8 x 1-minute hill sprints with 2-minute active recovery
Week 7 10 x 1-minute hill sprints with 2-minute active recovery
Week 8 (Recovery) 6 x 1-minute hill sprints with 2-minute active recovery
Week 9 3 x 3 minutes @ 20km time-trial intensity with 3-minute active recovery
Week 10 4 x 3 minutes @ 20km time-trial intensity with 3-minute active recovery
Week 11 5 x 3 minutes @ 20km time-trial intensity with 3-minute active recovery
Week 12 (Recovery) 3 x 3 minutes @ 20km time-trial intensity with 3-minute active recovery

I’m also a triathlete and I’ve done 3 Ironmans in the last five years. This year I plan to expand my riding horizons and dabble in a little mountain biking (New Belgium Short Track, here I come.) I’ve also taken a pledge to ride my bike and drive my car as little as possible this year. You can find me working in one of the stores on the weekend as well helping to keep this blog up to date and getting an email newsletter out to you each week.

I’m going to be keeping you posted on what the staff is doing as well as all the bicycle related happenings in town. If I miss a big event, be sure to ping me by commenting on this blog.

Okay, so here it goes. First off, the Lee’s and Trek staff received training and a refresher course bike fitting last week. The class was taught by our Serotta Certified bike fitters Heath Garvey, Barry Schiebel and Tyson Kaman.

The class went over the basics of bike fit including selecting the right size frame, determining proper saddle height, fore/aft position, hip angle, stem length and rise as well as handlebar width. All of our staff is trained on how to do these basic “floor fits.” The staff members are proficient at using the goniometer and plumb bomb to measure body angles and ensure that your get a solid, neutral fit that is optimized for the type of riding that you are doing.

Our staff also received some great pointers on how to help (particularly new) riders hold a better posture on the bike. These tips, plus the right fit will make for an excellent riding experience.

Now that being said, if you have any major biomechanical issues or injuries we still recommend that you come in for one of our more advanced fittings. These fitting sessions can be scheduled by calling our South store at 226-6006. Learn more about bike fitting on our website (and yes, that’s me being fitted.)

Finally, Lee’s and Trek of Loveland owner, Archie Solsky, is hanging out this weekend at the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey California. Friend us, or visit our new Facebook fan page to check out the action and some bike candy.

A few posts ago, you may remember me talking about the Colorado Trail MTB race.  After following the race, reading some CTR blogs and talking to a competitor, I had to see what the Colorado Trail was like first hand.

The entire Colorado Trail is made up of 28 sections; a friend and I were only planning to ride the first three starting in Waterton Canyon and ending 50 miles later in Bailey.  Saturday’s forecast was supposed for a great day, so the plan was set to meet on the way to the trail head and be in the saddle by 8:00AM; followed by a shuttle ride back to the truck 5 – 6 hours later.  While heading down I25, the truck suddenly switched lanes without any input from me……”good thing mountain bikers don’t care about the wind!” I commented and hoped I packed my wind jacket. As we pulled into the trail head, the hills looked a bit pale; “a bit frosty eh”?  “At least the parking lot is empty”, we chuckled to each other.

Layers?  Check.   Gloves? check…….Oh my, one more layer? Check.  Food, water, camera, phone, keys?  Double check.  A glance at the watch showed us to be five minutes ahead of schedule.  Good sign so far, I thought to myself and we were off.

The first part of the trail follows an old rail bed for 6.8 miles paralleling the Platte river and we welcomed the chance for an easy warm up.  That changed in a hurry once we turned left onto what was supposed to be single track; however, the 2” of snow showed two distinct tire tracks as we started to climb.  If it was not for the snow, the climb would have been very manageable, but the first of several switchbacks quickly had our tires spinning and we questioned our ride plans.  We decided to press on for lack of anything else better to do that day.  With each foot of elevation gained so too did the depth of the snow, and we were soon hiking more than riding.  If either one of us had been out there alone, we would have surely turned back at the first switchback but we planned for a full day on the trail and we still had plenty to talk about.  Despite the snow, some of the hike a bike sections would still be classified as hike a bike sections and there were plenty of stretches we can’t wait to get back to, minus the snow, and test our technical abilities.

We weren’t the only ones enjoying the snow on the trail however, and Dorothy’s famous line “Lions and tires and bears oh my” took on a whole new meaning.  We never saw who beat us to the trail and were glad they had a different agenda to us.

Eventually, the snow began to dissipate and we reached the high point of the climb.  From here, 12.6 miles in, the trail becomes an ocean of swells before dropping steadily into Gudy Bridge. We welcomed the first opportunity to let loose.  Patches of snow still kept us on our toes but added to the fun.  Gudy Bridge is the end of section 1 and a good place to refuel and plan our next move.

Although we were way behind schedule, we decided to continue on up the trail in search of browner pastures and we were not disappointed.  Here the trail climbs sharply and the decomposed granite composition of the trail tread made us glad we spent so much time practicing our weight distribution earlier in the snow.  If you’ve ever spent any time at Curt Gowdy State Park you know how this part of the trail feels.  Not completely rid of the snow, it was now more of a challenge than a hindrance to complete the steeper sections without any dabs.  The earlier snow had taken its toll on our chains however and stripped them of all lubrication, the effects of which could be heard and felt for the remaining miles.  Again, after paying our dues on the steady climb, or “grind” as described by my partner, we were treated to rolling single track through groves of aspen and pine.  This eventually lead us to wide open fields of high speed flowing single track all the way to the end of section 2 just off county road 126 where we decided to call it a day and head to Pine Junction to catch our shuttle.

The time spent in the snow kept us from reaching our original destination of section three but when is mountain biking about the destination anyway?  As soon as the snow clears we will surely be back to complete our ride and continue on the following sections of the Colorado Trail.

I hope you enjoyed the ride as much as I did.  If you’re prepared, winter riding can be just as fun and memorable as a summer’s day, minus the “normal” crowds.

Steve Lacey