Posts tagged “greenville”  

The race caravan, while seemingly chaotic fast, and unnerving, has a certain flow to it and a collegiate spirit. Before the 2009 USPRO Race we talked with Mavic about their setup and then got into the cars with them. Zabriskie attacked early and George won.

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That’s a 14 pound ProTour bike in the photo. It’s owned by Rich Hincapie (George’s Brother) and it’s pretty much what Team Columbia rides. I raced the bike in the South Carolina State Championship Road Race last weekend. My bike got garage-doored the day before and Rich was nice enough to let me ride his bike. We were in town for the Style in Motion, USPro weekend and part of the festivities is racing with the locals.

Considering how best to review the bike and share my experience, I thought this is what it’s like to blog cars. All day long it’s the mundane Hyundai or Prius this, that, and meh. Then one day you get the keys to a super sports car, like a Ferrari or Lotus. It makes your dayjob worthwhile.

This bike isn’t for everyone. Nothing is practical; afterall, it weighs 14 pounds and is aptly described as an “effing rocketship” with several, “whoas,” punctuated by a big “wow.”

After getting dropped 4 inches into the first meter of the Paris Mtn climb last year, I was determined to never let that happen again. Not only was I going backwards on the climb, but Pam (wife) dropped me for George Hincapie. Yep.

We were in Greenville SC for the Hincapie Style in Motion Weekend and USPro race. On Friday, George rides with Hincapie Sporstwear dealers on the USPro Course, including Paris Mtn. Pam looked back as I struggled, looked ahead to the George group, back again, and accelerated away. I couldn’t blame her really. I was not having a good day.

Once we confirmed our return to Greenville this year, I started thinking about Paris Mtn.

Not a Climber

Where a climber’s ancestors were scurrying up cliffs and into trees, my clan roamed the lowlands, rolling along. Us bigger guys do what we can to survive the climbs and bomb the descents. We rock the circuits, rolleaur style courses, and crits. I usually don’t get too engaged in the climbs, but this one became my nemesis.

The Climb

As you can see in the iBike chart below, the climb is a sustained hard effort. Paris Mtn was a season-long focus for me. For two months before the big day, I drank no beer, ate bread just once a day and added hillier races than usual to my calendar.

There’s a camaraderie in the race caravan. It’s collegiate and a certain flow to the fast chaos, like sharing water with Motos. Pam shot this and Frank commented that the photo looks like a Mentos commercial or one for water.

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That’s Sweet Rob and a mountain biker we nicknamed Mr. Hematoma. Ouch. He got that in a local race.

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Feed Zone Guy is armed and at the ready with feed bags — if it weren’t for great volunteers like him, it wouldn’t be possible to have domestic road races.

We’re behind the scenes with Mavic at the USPro race in Greenville SC, live blogging in the caravan, and hanging out. Attempted to trade a Bike Hugger jersey for this belt buckle. No go.

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Greenville SC is working hard at becoming a bike town, including new bike paths named after George Hincapie.

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Later this week, we'll pull focus on the town of Greenville SC for the USPRO weekend. We'll live blog from the caravan, behind the scenes, at the meetup, and from the Hincapie Sportswear fashion show.

Check the photos from and posts from last year. Greenville is a bike town. We asked these cyclists and they told us so.

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Ride with George and Race

While in town we'll also ride with George Hincapie on the road race course, eat with the familila, feel fat next to Boyd and race with Nicole at the SC State Road Race.

We say hello to Hincapie Sportswear, meet Moto 1, and ride with Mavic at the USPro Road Race.

To date, one of the most intense, extreme, Mtn-dew-drinking things I’ve done is ride in the Mavic Service Course car. Barking tires around corners, whipping around other cars in the caravan, and following a breakaway down an S-turning mountain road is right up there with white-knuckle, 55-mph, Mtn pass descents on my road bike.

I was walking around Hincapie HQ and spotted a Fat Guy Spandex photo taped to a monitor, and was like, “whoa, wait, is that the original?” And it was!

Jennifer Helms, shown here, shot that photo and I don’t think really knew that it was a meme. Ask anyone with a computer who’s into bikes and they’ll laugh about that photo. We posted on it last year, it was on Swobo’s blog, Cyclingnews, and elsewhere. The story is that Mr. Lampre Kit was the Mayor of the Town the Tour came through and was beaming with pride.

Now that’s bike culture … tattooing a crank arm on your leg. Sweet Rob also made sure we got into the Mavic cars for live blogging during the USPro Race. Greenville has a burgeoning bike culture — while we didn’t see any commuters, we did meet urban cyclists, one Critical Mass rider, and spotted a Nishiki with Godspeed Tensioner in the crowd.

During the Style in Motion Weekend, I talked with George Hincapie and other Greenville business about their enthusiam for the sport and recreational cycling. In downtown Greenville, Postcards from Paris sells European interiors alongside high-end bikes and Hincapie Sporstwear’s 09 line features Après-ride clothes for bike shops to sell.

One of the spectator highlights of the Greenville championships is the Kids Race, where kids from 6-12 get a chance to race the final 200 meters of the pro course.

They come on Big Wheels, BMX bikes, brand-new Treks, and steel frames with a sheen of rust. Everybody wears race bib number 1, and everybody takes home a medal. The cardinal rule is “don't run into any of the other riders.”

It's a terrific way to introduce the sport to youngsters -- where else would they get the chance to compete in front of thousands of spectators lining the race's start-finish area?

Here's a photoset with some of the participants.

From the charity rides, local races, and USPro, cycling is a big thing in Greenville — there’s some urban and commuting. Just got out of the Mavic Neutral Race Support Car. Full posts, podcasts to follow.

Also note that Bike Rumors posted on Hincapie Jeans. They’re real.

We met this urban cyclist who told us he was en route to Critical Mass. Curious, I asked if they were a friendly bunch of Massers or tended towards violence and angry, punk youth. That question puzzled him, as he didn’t understand how CM could be violent . . later we asked some locals who didn’t know that Critical Mass even existed in Greenville.

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To match the new, technical wool offerings, Hincapie has sexy, new “Après ride” Jeans. A Bike Hugger in Butt Huggers, we joked …

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Bike Hugger was invited to Style in Motion, a dealer sales meeting, media event, fashion show, and to watch the USPro Race. We’re off to race with the locals today then back to Greenville. More posts to follow.

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