I just wanted to share a find I’ve made when searching for accommodation for our 3 week summer road trip to France, Switzerland and Austria.

The boys are racing The BMC Swiss Cup XC race in Davos the week before the European Championships so week 1 is the most important for training as it has to be a fine balance between volume and intensity. We need something meaningful but we also need to put up a good show at the end of the week.

Specificity is the watch word of this week – train like you’re going to race. so we need to find the right trails, hit them hard and recover properly. So we needed accommodation that could cope with our needs – understood, what we were about and could make our week as effective as possible.

I’m a list person – and my ideal list for this was pretty long… showing it to some pals they laughed the laugh of seasoned Alpine visitors… so it was game on!

The Mountain Bike Chalet is in Les Arcs so I didn’t find it it immediately as I looked at other, maybe more obvious, mtb resorts… but when I did find it I was quickly able to start ticking things off my list… I ticked everything off my list…

Tris and the team offer the whole deal. Their 18 guests can expect detailed advice on the best trails for their riding requirements.

The accommodation in Chalet Algonquin looks like it should cost a lot more with very flexible room arrangements (we needed a triple and they have 2) and tasteful, modern decor.

Food & wine is also included in the price for 6 days of your stay. As a veteran of a few trips to non-cycling hotels serving restaurant portions and wondering why the dessert buffet was decimated this is a really big deal for us.

There’s a workshop with tools, a mechanic and a bike wash. The team will also recommend and assist in setting your bike up for the conditions in Les Arcs… I have no doubt that this will be where the banter starts with there being pretty limited options for 100mm travel carbon hardtails…

The accommodation includes a large communal living room and we’re looking forward to hanging out with other riders.

It’s a lot, a hell of a lot for the £359 they’ll charge you for 7 nights in 2013… and there are discounts available. Full details on the Mountain Bike Chalet Pricing Page

Can’t wait!

Some bikes will never make it to the price comparison pages of Bicycles.

Built to celebrate Lamborghini’s 50th anniversary the BMC Lamborghini Edition impec is one of those bikes.

Limited to 50 worldwide it’s unlikely that many of us will ever see one in the flesh so here are some pictures:

Yours for just 25,000 Euros….

Scottish Cyclocross fan, racer, film maker and event organiser John McComisky came across this great product via his interest in the United States cross scene.

“ I really liked the look of the product, the packaging and the reviews it was getting, and as most of my competitive racing is done in winter in the Scottish Cyclocross scene, I thought it would be grand to get the products over here”.

The easiest way to sell was via his web shop www.cross-shop.webs.com, and since then riders from elite to rookie in the cross scene have been using it. “ I think it it can be a great product for riders who take their cycling just that little bit more seriously, in has a feel good factor as part of your pre-ride ritual”.

Rather than John espousing the Product here is what Dan Socie of the Soigneur brand had to say:

“Whether you’re training, racing or recovering, whatever enhances your comfort enhances your performance. Professional cyclists rely on team soigneur’s to dial in their comfort and performance with muscle-warming massages. Dedicated to the athlete’s needs, soigneur’s pack bags, prepare food, schedule flights, drive vans, hand up food, calm nerves and rub legs. The rest of us have to be more resourceful”.
With Soigneur we create products that enhance your athletic experience, motivate you to start your workout, enjoy the ride, and recover more quickly.
We don’t see the point in struggling when you don’t have to.

That means pre-warming your legs with Soigneur embrocation before heading out into the cold, indulging in a generous pre-ride application of Soigneur Chamois Cream to keep friction, irritation and saddle sores at bay and tender bits happy, and a post-exercise application of Soigneur embrocation to soothe tired, aching muscles.

Privateer or a pro, your body deserves the same high level of care and professional respect. But most of us aren’t pros. That’s why we created Soigneur. We are your soigneur.

Garmin have added 10 to their two most popular cycling GPS computers, the Edge 500 and the Edge 800 now become the Edge 510 and Edge 810.

Now I love my 500 and I love the data it gives me from the riders that I coach so I get quite excited when I hear of new models.

So what do I get and will it tempt me to upgrade?

Well for the new Edge 510 it’s a touch display, colour and 2.2 inches of screen. It also includes wireless upload to Garmin Connect and 20 hours of battery life.

The Edge 810 gets the same just more of it… at least in the screen department. Unfortunately the 2.6 inch screen will cost you 3 hours of battery life but it does comes with excellent mapping.

Admen say “sell the sizzle not the sausage” and the new Edges are sizzling with mobile connectivity. The video below ably demonstrates all the reasons that you can’t live without it as Dan Martin, Andrew Talansky and David Millar plot peloton domination. But if you don’t have a Vaughters to track you then who? I predict huge potential for domestic strife…

They come with RRPs of £249.99 for the 510 and £379.99 for the 810.

So will I be rushing out to exchange my 500? Probably not… functionality remains largely the same and whilst the wireless upload is attractive I still have to plug it to charge it. I suppose that the extra battery life is going to make that less frequent and they do look very elegant.

The mobile app could be useful but again it appears to data faster rather than new data.

That said whilst I don’t think it’s enough to make me immediately upgrade I do look forward to the inevitable demise of my 500…

I suspect it will be faster than it might have been…

I was given the Park Tools Pizza Cutter as a gift from my parents…

I generally get something bike related but they daren’t venture in to serious kit so invariably there is a novelty factor.

This arrived for my birthday and I thought it was pretty cool… Park Tools don’t make anything that isn’t well considered so despite the whimsical appearance I hoped for good things.

I like that in common with all their tools Park have given this a part name: PZT-2 (this being the second iteration of the tool) it tells you that they’re serious about this thing… or it tells you that their marketing people know exactly what type of person is likely to buy this… I prefer the former (being exactly that type of person).

Anyway, Pizza was duly purchased and the cutter put to work.

It’s brilliant! Now I know that you have to have a pretty low horizon to take delight in the performance of a pizza cutter but it is epic! A joy to use!

And use it I did… my house was treated to julienne of pizza as I sliced like a slicing fool… it slices around corners and it slices in reverse… you can slice an ever-decreasing spiral pull up the middle and make 3d pizza… after only a few hours of meaningful practice your pizza presentation is only limited by your imagination…

This thing slices pizza like no thing has ever sliced pizza… the Park Tools Pizza Tool make you a pizza slicing god!

You must not eat another pizza until you own one… really… buy one… now…

Racing Cyclocross and XC we’ve noticed that core strength makes a huge difference to performance.

Searching the net for an all-in-one serious core workout Mark came across this and so we’re going to trial it 2-3 times a week for the next few weeks.

If you decide to join us let us know how you get on….

I though I’d put up a quick post about this because it’s quite expensive to have you bike shop do it but having just done it it can be a piece of cake.

Hydraulic brakes are often confined to the too-hard box of home bicycle maintenance but in reality with a bit of time spent on preparation, the right kit and a calm mind they’re nothing complicated… just remember that your simply squeezing some oily fluid in a pipe in order to push a brake pad against a brake disc.

The brake fluid needs to stay in the pipe and as it’s easier to compress air than oil you need the air to stay out… if either goes wrong everything will get a bit spongy when your pull on the brake levers and stopping will a bit touch-and-go… complete failure of either will result in complete failure in brake induced deceleration.

Anyway – those long, flappy cables that came on my new Avid Juicy brakes… My local bike shop wanted £30 + parts for the cable shortening and another £35 all-in for bleeding them afterwards.  Now this is probably a fair price for them to charge but it was more than I expected to pay so I decided to see how hard it would be for me to do it myself.

Shortening: I checked this videos from SRAM / Avid:

I got the olives and brake barbs for £6 online and the job took me 5 minutes – No need to drain the system just go straight at it.

I’d love to give you some additional tips but it really is as simple as he makes it look. £30 to me!

Next the bleeding of the brakes… here’s where it gets a bit strange.

I had bought the appropriate kit from ebay for £8 – it looked like a good copy of the £35 Avid kit and on receipt I really couldn’t see where they’d scrimped. It had 2 threaded syringes, fluid, gloves, torx wrench, elastic band and written instructions… all very good.

So I pumped the newly shortened brakes and they bit the discs hard… tried again.. same. Took the bike out on the street and they felt great, took them up the woods, expecting them to ‘sponge-up’ at any moment and they didn’t. Got my son to try and make them fail and he couldn’t.

So the whole thing cost me £6 and 5 minutes.

Now I’m sure the bike mechanic, for very good reasons, would have bled the brakes – it would be quicker than doing the riding that we did and it’s the right thing to do to protect your customer but I didn’t need to so £65 and a spare brake bleed kit to me!!

So if you’ve got the time and the inclination it’s always worth having a go…

Just a quick shout out for MTB time Trials.

Lewis entered his first one with the excellent Innerleithen MTB Racing last weekend and it was a blast.

26km around the fabulous Inners trails with plenty of technical climbs and some on-the-edge (for XC riders) descents thrown in. The organisation and marshalling was first class and the atmosphere was very friendly.

I really wanted to take part but then I remembered that I am the world’s worst off-road bike handler and would probably die a fast and bloody death at the hands of an evil root… but I have a year to get better so next year I will be a part of it.

And a big shout out for some of the best bike race photography I’ve seen… another reason for entering next year is that I’m sure Steve Wyper can make even me look cool!

Courtesy of Steve Wyper

As the Cyclocross season is upon us I decided to search the net for some inspiration and tips… Bradley delivers both in this video from his younger days… unbelievable CX tekkers

I’m delighted that we will be sponsoring chip timing for the 2012 Scottish Circuit Race and Youth Road Race Championships in Paisley next weekend.

Lewis and our Perth United Youth Team boys raced last year and were blown away to be part of such a well organised and well supported day of racing.

Chip timing makes the job of the organisers a lot more straightforward and for those of us involved in the racing, training and coaching it can provide some very powerful data.

We have 2 aims with this sponsorship. First is to get race results up as soon as possible… the goal is before the riders get home.

The second is to take the data provided by the chips and deliver this data to the riders in a format that will help them understand their race, measure specific aspects of their performance and use this data to train more effectively…. In essence we believe that good data, thoughtfully analysed can make you faster.

If the riders agree with us and if they want more then we plan to offer the reporting service to any races using chip timing and we hope to do more sponsorship of hardware in the 2013 season.

The results will be here. Let us know what you think.