Welcome to the Family

We would like to welcome the following shops to the Grease Monkey Wipes retailer family:

- ATX Bikes
- Cycle Progression
- Nelo's Pro Cycles

Welcome aboard.

Levi Sidelined with Fractured Sacrum

The Astana Cycling team announced Saturday that Levi Leipheimer suffered an undisplaced fracture of the sacrum in a crash during the third stage of the Amgen Tour of California.

As a result of the diagnosis, Leipheimer will not compete in next month’s edition of Paris-Nice (March 6-15) and will delay his return to cycling until March 23, when he competes in the five-day Vuelta a Castilla y León.

Leipheimer reported pain and discomfort following the February 17 crash in California, triggered when he overlapped wheels with teammate Lance Armstrong. The fracture did not, however, prevent him from continuing the nine-day California stage race in which he subsequently won the individual time trial and the overall classification.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

More Cycling Related Thefts

While the Web-based cycling community was all a-Twitter over the recent theft and return of Lance Armstrong's time trial bike, another cyclist has suffered a bigger loss of personal property, but did not discover it until he returned from the recent Amgen Tour of California.

Salt Lake City Police have issued an appeal for the public's help in recovering items stolen in a burglary at the home of Garmin-Slipstream’s David Zabriskie.

According to police, the break-in occurred while Zabriskie was in California for the recent Amgen Tour.

Three in a row for Levi

Astana’s Levi Leipheimer collected his third consecutive victory at the Amgen Tour of California on Sunday as Saxo Bank’s Fränk Schleck won the eighth and final stage, a 97-mile leg from Rancho Bernardo to Escondido.

In Other Astana Domination News

Alberto Contador wins Portugal's Volta au Algarve stage race on the strength of his stage 4 time trial.

Astana's Alberto Contador started his season out with a victory by winning Portugal's Volta ao Algarve stage race on Sunday.

Contador finished in the pack — in 96th place — on the 166km stage from Vila do Obispo to Portimao. Contador finished in the same time as stage winner Henrich Haussler (Cervelo TestTeam).

Contador had taken the overall lead on the strength of his second place in the stage 3 mountain top finish and then his commanding win in stage 4's 34km time trial.

"This year, the Tour is without doubt my priority, but I don't want to discard the Giro or the Vuelta," said Contador.

"By coming to the Algarve the objective was to stay in form with other targets in mind like the Paris-Nice. But I knew that I was capable of winning the race. I couldn't have done any better.

"It was a very good race. I did right in coming here. We had a lot of luck with the weather which is fundamentally important."

Contador's next race will be Paris-Nice, March 8-15. He won that race in 2007, the same season he won his first Tour de France.

Second Person Nabbed in Austin Cycling Thefts

The Austin Police Department’s South Central Area Command Detectives have made an additional arrest in the high-dollar bike thefts. Layne Severson, (DOB: 10-15-79) has been charged with Money Laundering, a State Jail Felony and has been booked into Travis County jail on a $5,000 bond.

Detectives learned that Severson owned an online payment account. The proceeds from the sale of the stolen property were deposited into this account which was connected to Severson’s checking account.

James Clayton was arrested on Tuesday Feb. 3, 2009 in connection with this case.

Thanks for returning my bike.

Too hot to handle? Armstrong's TT bike reportedly recovered

Sacramento police reported recovering Lance Armstrong’s stolen time trial bike on Wednesday.

The custom Trek 1274/27.5 TTX vanished from a Team Astana truck parked outside a hotel after the Amgen Tour of California prologue, along with three road bikes belonging to Janez Brajkovic, Steve Morabito and Yaroslav Popovych.

Brajkovic's bike was found Tuesday at the hotel from which the other bikes had been stolen. Hotel employees told police that the bike had been in storage and there had been "a miscommunication between the rider and the hotel."

On Wednesday, a local resident who police said wishes to remain anonymous brought Armstrong’s bike to police headquarters. The department released a statement saying that "the facts surrounding how the person came into possession of the bicycle are not being released at this time due to an ongoing investigation."

"The bicycle is currently in the care of the police department and arrangements will be made to
return the bicycle to the owner."

That owner never had any doubts. Asked by VeloNews editor in chief Ben Delaney whether the theft bothered him, Armstrong replied: "Nah. Bikes are replaceable. I suspect that bike will come back. There’s no way you can steal a one-of-a-kind bike. And unless you keep it to yourself, or burn it, that bike comes back every time."

The Austin Bike Thief has Friends Apparently

Lance Armstrong, Trek staffers report that Astana time trial bikes, including Armstrong's, stolen from team truck overnight.

Police in Sacramento are investigating the theft of four Team Astana bikes, including Lance Armstrong's time trial bike, from behind a team hotel overnight.

Sacramento Police Department spokesman Konrad Von Schoech told the Sacramento Bee newspaper the bikes were stolen from an unmarked truck that was parked in an alley behind a hotel overnight.

Von Schoech said it wasn't clear whether the thieves were targeting Amstrong.

"We don't have any information that would indicate they specially went after his bike," he told the newspaper.

Lance Armstrong and Trek Bicycle employees reported on their Twitter.com accounts Sunday morning that the four bikes were stolen.

Armstrong posted a picture of his stolen Trek through his Twitter account. "There is only one like it in the world therefore hard to pawn it off. Reward being offered," he wrote.

Trek's Ben Coates confirmed the theft in an email to VeloNews.

"Lance’s TT bike was stolen this morning along with three other Astana team road bikes. The stolen TT is the only one of it’s kind and can easily be spotted," Coates wrote.

SRAM marketing director Michael Zellmann also confirmed the theft, noting that Armstrong's bike had prototype SRAM time trial shifters, the 1090 R2C shifters, and a wireless SRM wattage meter. The SRM handlebar unit was not stolen, Zellmann said.

Armstrong has a backup time trial bike with a different paint job that he could use in the Solvang time trial if the stolen bike is not recovered.

Forecasters say this year's Tour of California could be just as wet as last year's

Last year’s Tour of California was notable for its cool, rainy weather that combined with a nasty bug going through the peloton to produce a 41 percent attrition rate for the then-eight-day race.

This year, riders are hoping to avoid the infection. But there is little hope of escape from a longer, tougher, race and predicted cool, wet and windy weather.

Team OUCH's Tim Johnson, known for his ability to race cyclocross in brutal conditions, says he is preparing for the toughest race of his career.

"It's going to be friggin' brutal," Johnson told VeloNews Wednesday.

"It was already hard last year, and this year there's a harder course and a better field," he said. "And there could be epic conditions."

To read the whole story, click here .

Liar, liar pants on fire?

Cycling: Change in Plans

Lance Armstrong has abandoned his plan to submit to extra performance-enhancing drug tests and make all of the results public to bolster his claims that he competes drug-free, according to the anti-doping chemist Armstrong had pegged to handle the extra testing.

Don Catlin, head of the Los Angeles-based Anti-Doping Research, said yesterday the planned partnership between him and Armstrong would not go forward for a variety of reasons. Armstrong, 37, had trumpeted the proposed arrangement last September when he came out of a three-year retirement to chase his eighth Tour de France title this summer.

Catlin emphasized that Armstrong had not reneged on his promise to allow free rein on testing and the posting of comprehensive results on the Web.

I guess we all battle the same thing...

Minutes before the Astana cyclists began their 107-mile training ride in Santa Rosa, one of the world’s most famous athletes made what seemed an off-hand remark.

Standing by his bike in front of the Santa Rosa Hyatt, Lance Armstrong was asked his plans for this ride, part of a 10-day training session leading up to the eight-day Tour of California, which will blast into the city on Feb.15. The King Ridge route had been selected by teammate and Santa Rosa resident Levi Leipheimer for both its scenery and difficulty.

“Just follow Levi,” Armstrong said.

Was he nervous?

For more of the story click here.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

We are working to transition our blog from a strictly "what are we doing" to "what is going on in the world around us." As such, we are going to be adding much more cycling content not only from Austin but from other spots across the country. Some of this content will be user provided, and some will be pulled from other sites.

Additionally on a regular basis I will be putting information about local rides, whether that is a shop ride, race, charity ride, or whatever. So get out there and ride.

The Pure Austin Pace Bend Road Race

The Pure Austin Pace Bend Road Race will be better than ever this year. We've taken the classic Texas Hill Country road race venue, added many of your inputs and suggestions, included a little creativity of our own, put in a lot of hard work, and have created a racing event that you are not going to want to miss. And it is the first race in the inaugural TXBRA Premier Cup! As always we will have the entire road for shoulder-to-shoulder racing on the ten kilometer hilly circuit. Get that - no centerline rule. Races that have been grouped in wave starts by like skill-set will go clockwise with an uphill finish near Camp Chautauqua. The Camp, by the way, is a great add to the event venue - thanks to Travis County Parks and the LCRA.

To read more please click here.

Base Miles

One of the toughest aspects of early season riding is getting base miles, especially when you live in a climate like Austin where it will be in the 70s one day and then windy and in the 40s the next. Just when you get into a good rhythm you either have to take off a few days or move in on the trainer or go spinning. Of course over 3/4 of the country would love even a single 70 degree day so they could put away their winter gear, even if for a brief moment.

This is the first year that I have not been focused on running in January and February, and even though it is a change I truly prefer being on the bike. So bring on the weather, either 70 or 40.

Another Warm Day in Austin

Tomorrow should be another warm day in Austin. Perfect for another nice February outdoor ride.

First Hand Experience

Ever since we received the first shipment of Grease Monkey Wipes, I have been using them regularly for a variety of cleaning jobs. Getting grease off my hands, cleaning pen off my arm, removing glue after an "incident", removing basic bike scum after fixing a flat. But last week I had the ultimate first hand test.

While out riding I dropped my chain while shifting gears at a stop light. After attempting to quickly get the chain back on I thought maybe sitting in traffic doing this was not the best of ideas. So after moving the bike to the side of the road I quickly re-engaged the chain and looking down and my hands were filthy. Now I am a guy and many times if it was just a little grease I might just wiped them on my bibs and been done with it. But this time my hands were caked in grease and I happened to be wearing a new kit.

Luckily I always carry a few Grease Monkey Wipes in my saddle bag, and within seconds my hands were nice and clean, had a nice clean citrus smell, and I was back on my ride with clean hands, and a clean kit.

Moral of the story: Carry Grease Monkey Wipes when you ride and you will never have to ride with greasy hands or a greasy kit again.

Enjoy the ride.