Rapha Finale

Rapha Rides the TOC - Finale from RAPHA on Vimeo.

It took everything we had to survive our tour of California. We rode with grace and grit. We took to the tour some style, and of course, our curiosity and penchant for story. But to be sure, we also took all the muscle and lung we had, and we just barely had enough. We are not pros, this isn’t what we do for a living—in fact, most of us had never put more than a few days of anywhere close to this sort of mileage together. We weren’t at any point deluded about how fast we were, we knew that even under the best of circumstances our times would be nothing less than anemic in comparison to the pros. In fact, this was part of the reason to ride it, to do our best and relish in the results.

Republic Aristotle

Republic Bike Shop is currently having a really great deal on their custom bicycles. Normally, they sell for $500, but right now they are $344.

Weekend Getaway

Decided to head south for the weekend and do some skiing in the McCall Area. Here are some shots from Brundage and Tamarack. Couldn't have asked for a better weekend of weather!

Watch TOC Live

Here is a link to stream the Tour of California. Great race today! Scary crash by Leipheimer who almost took Armstrong out.

Rapha Episode 2 ATOC

Rapha Rides the TOC - Episode 2 from RAPHA on Vimeo.

Rapha

Rapha Rides The Tour of California from RAPHA on Vimeo.

Lance's Stolen TT Bike

MASH SF to ride fixed in Tour of Californa

Eight riders from the globetrotting MASH SF crew plan to ride the entire 750 miles of the Amgen Tour of California on fixed gear bikes. The eight-member MASH unit plans to ride seven- to 12-hour days, leaving ahead of or after the peloton. These fixie hipsters even have sponsorship from CLIF BAR, which bills itself as the nutrition sponsor for MASH's Tour of California ride.

“We’ll be using the same bikes we ride every day,” said MASH rider Garrett Chow. “We ride them to get a burrito. We all cycle passionately when we can. It’s kind of like, ‘Why do people climb Everest? Because they can.’ We’re giving it 100 percent and seeing what we can do.”

Three riders from MASH appeared on stage with Garmin-Chipotle at a CLIF sponsored bike talk last night in Berkeley, California. Christian Vande Velde gave the MASH guys some grief about their equipment needs when he quipped, “I break my best stuff and they give me a new one right away. You guys are screwed!”

MASH cyclist Garrett Chow shot back, “We’ve got two spare tires and two spare chains. That out to get us through the nine stages.”

As the Garmin riders talked about preparing for the heavy rain anticipated over the next week, Chow revealed his team's plans for the weather: “Yeah, we brought two pairs of jeans.”

Here is one riders take on how the riders will do-
"I predict they DNF Stage 1. Howell Mtn Road is extremely steep, and unless they are in fact swapping chainrings the gearing needed to get up it would be awfully annoying in the flats. Not to mention that the bike would want to run 300 RPM descending Deer Creek. That would require some serious knee work to backpedal down that hill, after grinding up Howell. A skilled rider might do some skidding, but it's supposed to rain every day for the next week, not exactly good for skidding.

Then if they get past that alive, Petrified Forest and Calistoga Road await. A pro woman cyclist laid it down on Calistoga and almost killed herself, with a freewheel and dry roads."

Good Luck boys!

Polo Pics

Here are some pictures from last nights polo sess. The new location is awesome, tons of lighting, and plenty of obstacles which make for some interesting maneuvering.

Velodrome Testing

Get em' Lance!

New Bike Polo Location

"Post Cop Crackdown, Now what?!?"

Recently, we were kicked out of our old spot at the parking garage under the Fine Arts Building. Here is a message from our fearless leader Joey:

"Parking services wont allow us to play in the garage because of a couple complaints so we have a new spot for tonight. It is on the opposite side of the football stadium. Continue up stadium way until you can park in a parking lot on the right. We are playing in the stadium concession area underneath of the north side seats. The gates should be open.

Also a Daily News reporter and photographer are supposedly going to come check it out tonight.

See you at 7:30pm."

Thanks to the PT Cruiser, for complaining, that came through, continuously honking your horn the other evening. Because of you we are again at the mercy of the Palouse weather...

Bike with a mission

"After three years of retirement, Lance Armstrong is back on the bike and ready to race. Lance returns to the professional ranks in pursuit of more Grand Tour wins and in support of his global cancer-fighting initiative and LIVESTRONG Foundation. The Cancer fight is something that Lance cites as his primary focus for his return- even asking Trek to help him promote his campaign.

The result? On Lance’s new custom painted Madone you’ll notice two significant numbers — 1274 and 27.5. The former signifies the number of days Armstrong was in retirement. During this time, nearly 27.5 million people worldwide succumbed to cancer. 27.5- it’s a huge number, a huge battle, but one we’re proud to help Lance fight." -Pulled some Trek site.

Tricycle Backflip