San Diego Tour de Cure -Team Red

Team Red full kit

sdvelosocial — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 03:30:49 +0000

OK no comments about the model, i’m the only one that fits the size. They will look better on you I promise.

I did a big loop today.

sdvelosocial — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 01:42:14 +0000

This ride encompasses some of the San Diego Century and the Tour de Cure routes.

Check it here. http://t.co/XDl5szC

The Evolving Art of Carbo-Loading | Active.com

sdvelosocial — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 04:24:44 +0000

With our event coming up on May 7th some of you may be thinking of ways to prepare; including Carbo-loading. Here is a great article dispelling the myths and misinformation behind the process.

The Evolving Art of Carbo-Loading | Active.com.

Co-Captain Ben Wojcik

What’s coming up?

sdvelosocial — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 00:19:05 +0000

Next up is a supported ride of the old 70 mile route from past tour events. This will take place this Saturday, April 16th. Map

Meet at MiraCosta College Cardiff Campus between 7 – 7:30am, we will hopefully be rolling before 7:45am. Don’t forget to arrive with full bottles and enough nutrition to sustain yourself for 20 miles. We will be having SAG stops but it is always advisable to have enough GU or whatever you like to get you through the first leg.

Cory and Jeff from CCSD will be providing support and I’m sure it will be up to the standard Rob and Jo provided last time.

Riders must carry spare tubes, tire repair kit, air pump plus critical water and nutritional bar. HELMETS ARE MANDATORY.

April 24th will be another ride of the 30 mile route. Map

This will be the last organized ride before the May 7th event. Please try to make this one, we can get lots of Team Red shirts on the road. Oh, did I tell you the shirts from the initial order have been produced and shipped to Rage Cycling and Rage has shipped them to San Diego.

Can I get a Woot! Woot!

Co-Captain Ben Wojcik

A Big Thanks to CCSD

sdvelosocial — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 05:26:35 +0000

Team Red is gearing up for the Tour in six weeks.

We had a great ride of the 55 mile course last weekend with Cycling Camp San Diego providing the support. Rob and Jo gave us some great coaching about climbing, descending and riding in wet conditions as we had a bit of the wet stuff to start our ride.

We rode the first 30 miles and stopped for a rest and nutrition break. Again we were given coaching on nutrition before, during and after the ride and we all learned about maltodextrin. You can too; CLICK

After that the route takes you on a roller coaster of some challenging climbs before delivering you to the Coast Highway. In Carlsbad just before the camp grounds Jo had set up another nutrition station with water, nuts, cliff bars and lots of other things to choose from.

It was a quick run back to MiraCosta to end a great morning in the saddle.

Next Up will be another supported ride by CCSD, this time we will be tackling the old 70 mile route, which generally consists of the last 70 miles of the Century Route. MAP

The date is not firm yet but will probably be either the 16th or 17th of April. Once again this will not be a ride geared for someone who has never tried this distance. This ride will focus on getting the century riders some miles and course familiarity prior to the day of event.

Unfortunately, Rob and Jo will have to be leading a ride in Europe so they will not be supporting us, instead they will be putting us in the very capable hands of some of their staff of coaches, ride leaders and SAG support.

Please RSVP to me at TeamRedSanDiegoTdC@gmail.com so we can plan support for the correct number of riders. This ride will be primarily for Red Riders and Team Red but if our numbers are low we will allow others to join; this will be determined about April 10th.

If you rode with us on the 55 mile ride please drop Rob and Jo a thank you at rpanzera@gmail.com or jo@ccsd.com they love to hear from happy riders. If you haven’t already, check out what they do at http://www.cyclingcampsandiego.com/

Once again, we had a great ride and CCSD treated us very well. Thanks Rob, Thanks Jo have a good trip, see you soon.

Co-Captain Ben Wojcik

CCSD 55 mi TdC Route

sdvelosocial — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 02:19:40 +0000

3-19-11 – 30 Mile Route Training Ride

sdvelosocial — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 03:31:07 +0000

This Saturday, 3-19-11 we will again ride the 30 mile route. This time the ride is open to all registered riders not just Team Red and Red Riders. Although I’d like to see as many of you out there as possible.

Once again we’ll meet at MiraCosta between 8:30am and 9:00am. If you come early and get antsy about leaving just give your equipment another check and take some deep cleansing breaths, nine o’clock will come.

Here is my data from last weeks ride, I expect this week to be about the same. Data

Co-Captain Ben Wojcik

30 Mile TdC route with Team Red

sdvelosocial — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 23:06:08 +0000

We met at MiraCosta College in Cardiff and rode the 30 mile route for the Tour de Cure today. The riders were all members of Team Red or Red Riders.The weather was fantastic and the ride was smooth.

Here is my ride data. As you can see we had a good steady pace for most of the ride. Everyone did really well on the ride, considering some of the riders have been riding nothing but the sofa since the holidays.

I’ll post some pictures, so check out the Flickr stream. Click

Next up; March 27th, also from MiraCoasta College, we;ll be riding the 55 mile route with the support of CCSD. We’ll meet at 8:00am for this one so CCSD can brief us on the rules of the road, get waivers signed and do equipment checks. Remember this ride is for members of Team Red and Red Riders only. If you are interested in becoming a member of Team Red send me a message and I’ll tell you how to go about it.. sdvelosocial@gmail.com (You don’t want to be a Red Rider if you can help it, that is why I ride)

Co-Captain Ben Wojcik

Great Day for a Train Ride

sdvelosocial — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 18:27:32 +0000

Well, we did it, we even got Markus to the train station at 7:15am. Once again the Surfliner was on time and very easy to board. The conductor pointed out two cars with bike racks which made it slightly easier than las time when we just put them in an empty baggage car. Fantastic ocean views on the trip north, we discussed the exercises the Marines were doing and got to see parts of the coastline the train passes that you don’t get to see from a car.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous, clear blue sky, bright warm sun and just a little breeze. I’m not going to go into lyrical detail about the sublime weather and streets of smooth glass free bliss. You get the point, yes you should have been with us. We mad a stop at Revo Cycles Espresso & Bicycles to refill our bottles and get a pick up from some good espresso.Nice place next time you’re in Dana Point check it out.

The breeze picked up a little more when we got to San Clemente but it was tail wind and we sailed through the state park in a double line with Markus and Bobby pulling the entire way at about 24 to 25 mph with little effort. I sat in and was practically whisked along with no expenditure of energy. I know for some of you that is not a really fast pace but we were just out for a good long ride not measuring ourselves against each other or anyone else.

We made it through Camp Pendleton with one flat tire. @bikecrave Jeff Bean flatted just before we got to Edson Range recruit area. @distractionmgmt and I went back but he needed little assistance and was soon back on the road dropping us and chasing the others who had gapped us. Now I know how Jan Ulrich felt when he did the ‘honorable thing’ and waited for Lance he crashed only to be dropped as soon as Lance caught back on.

Into the Oceanside Harbor for water and snacks and then straight down the coast to Java Depot for coffee and conversation. Some of the guys Bobby, Glen and Markus decided to pick it up and measure off from Encinitas to Solana Beach but that is not unusual at the end of a long ride. We all gathered for coffee except Jeff Rowe who had pealed off in La Costa to head for home since he was the only one to have ridden his bike to the train station in the morning.

Once again this crew of riders had provided me and each other with another terrific day in the saddle on another seemingly flawless southern California day. Check out my photos here and Markus has many photos of his So Cal rides and some video here and here.

Join us next time, and please invite an old slow climber to keep me company in the Lanterne Rouge position.

Co-Captain Ben Wojcik

Fooled me once

sdvelosocial — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 05:26:10 +0000

I thought today was going to be an easy day and was feeling good about that since, I had almost no time in the saddle this week. @VeloTutor’s wife was visiting from Texas and we were going to give her a nice friendly spin to show her what great guys Bobby had joined.

Alas, being from Texas they decided that the low 40s was a little too chilly for their blood. They did; however, come to Ryan Bros Coffee to meet every one and wish us a good ride. Also meeting us at Ryan Bros was @awkowal, Tony, his friend Juan and Erik Sjogren, of the Carbon Militia. He didn’t ride with us this time as he is still recovering from being hit by, you guessed it, an F150.He did introduce two of his friends, Jeff (yes another one and yes he climbs well) and Rat (that’s the name he introduced himself with but his real name is Andre Ratso Villa). These guys were strong and it was great fun to have them along. Thanks for joining us guys hope you can join us again.

This left us with an opportunity to reroute the ride.Luckily, Palomar was out because the snow level was very low and that means lots of people going up to see the snow with no experience driving in those conditions.Plus none of us had chains for our tires.

We, Jeff, decided the Half-Century route would give us some fantastics views today. He was exactly right, check out the Flckr link. What can I say it was cold, it was hot and we climbed and climbed as the route demands. We stopped in Rainbow and all of us old guys watched in wonder as Juan devoured a caramel apple covered with white chocolate and drizzled with milk chocolate. Yeah I did get a good look at it. Oh, to be young and skinny again.

That brings up a point, we had four new riders today and all of them dropped me on every climb.When are some other old fat guys going to join us so I have a chance to give up my Lanterne Rouge status.

So you already guessed I was last up the Champagne climb and was able to partially redeem myself on the Deer Springs / Twin Oaks run in to the finish. We hung out at Ryan Bros for quite a while reliving the ride and wondering how we managed two loops of this ride just last September. We also talked Tour and doping and other things. It was a very good day.

Thanks to everyone who rode today for a great ride and special thanks to everyone for waiting for me once again on the climbs.

Co-Captain Ben Wojcik