Annual Club Banquet (and December Meeting)

We had our annual dinner banquet at the Winchester Country Club, hosted by D.J. Arnold, Logan Felty and Steve Breeden on Dec 12th, 2011. Notes kindly provided by Amy Hartman.

Awards
Winchester Wheelmen Race Team
• Male Racer of the Year – Jersey Wozniak
• Female Racer of the Year – Katie Thomas

Winchester Wheelmen
• Wheelman of the Year – Brian Wyer
• Most Improved Rider – Jimmy Saffel
  (logged 5,002 miles for 2011)
• Best New Rider – Ed Duncan

Special Recognition
• Middle Road Clean-Up
• 3rd Battle of Winchester Volunteers
• Ride Leaders
• All who participated in races this year

At registration, members were asked to complete a ballot for the election of club officers. The elected officials for 2012 are:

President: Steve Breeden
Secretary: Amy Hartman
Vice President: Mike Perry
Treasurer: Cathy Breeden


2012 Membership Renewal
Please fill out the accompanying form for membership renewal in 2012, if you haven’t already. For folks receiving mailed newsletters, the number following your name on your address label will tell you if you are renewed for 2011. An “-12” means you’re renewed. An “-11” means that you need to still renew. Without renewal, the March 2012 newsletter will be the last you’ll get until renewal. (Note that if you mailed renewal forms in since late December, that fact is not reflected in the address label yet.) Membership fees are unchanged for 2012, $16 for an individual and $20 for a family. Please note any address changes. Please make sure you check the box for receiving the newsletter by e-mail if possible.

Doping in Cycling: Then and Now
In his interesting book, We Were Young and Carefree, Laurent Fignon points to a time around the early 1990s when doping changed from the sporadic and marginally effective use of amphetamines, to a systematic and scientific team approach based on improving performance by increasing oxygen delivery. Although doping had a long history in cycling, it was now a game changer. About this time, EPO and blood transfusions came into widespread use. Jeremy Whittle, in his book Bad Blood, mentions the same. Both authors refer to the increases in average speed during the Tour over the last 15 years, and Whittle states that a 10 - 15% increase in average speed over the champions of the recent past is not likely, and too big to be caused by improvements in training and bike technology. Amphetamines boost performance, but only temporarily, and are easily detected with testing. On the other hand, autologous blood transfusions and EPO microdosing are hard to detect and can increase a cyclist’s hematocrit dramatically over the normal of about 45%. Since power output in cycling tracks hematocrit closely, as long as the blood doesn’t get too thick, it is difficult for the clean cyclist to compete against a guy that is blood-doping effectively. What’s worse is that after a couple weeks of a tough tour, hematocrit normally falls due to exercise-induced hemolysis . For the final tour week, the clean athlete may be running a hematocrit of 39% while the doper remains close to 50% due to blood boosting during the race. It’s like racing an old Rambler against a new Mercedes SLR McLaren.

As we all know, there is an ongoing effort to clean up cycling, but some are still pessimistic about the future, and some of the experts are claiming that genetic doping is on the horizon.

Dave Albecker


A Big Bike Story
Okay, you are a bicycle thief and walking along looking for a score. There it is, a special hand made one leaning against the wall of a coffee shop. You creep up slowly looking around for anyone who might be watching. Seeing no one, you grab the bike and jump on intending to ride away. Suddenly you are singing (screaming) a song in high soprano as you dangle on the top tube unable to find the pedals. Wee, the thief did not pay real good attention to what he was stealing. The bike belonged to Shawn Bradley, a former NBA center who stands at 7 foot, 6 inches and rides an 80cm frame road bike. Utah police found the bike not long after the theft and returned it to Shawn. They are now looking for the thief: Attention: on the lookout for average size guy, walking really funny and talking in a high voice.

Submitted by: Mike Perry

West Virginia Family Goes Green
You may have already seen this article, but it is worth repeating. It comes from the Charleston Daily Mail.

“In an effort to simplify her family’s life, Stacy Bisker doesn’t just walk the walk -- she rides the ride. When she and her husband head out the door for a family trek to school, or the store, or the park, it is most often under their own power and usually by bicycle.”

This is no small feat with four children, the youngest still in diapers and another who doesn’t know how to ride a bike yet. Like ducks in a row, the family proceeds with Bisker on a special cargo bike that holds baby Oliver in a seat on front. Avery sits on a padded platform on the back of the bike, which has a set of handlebars he grabs for security. The cargo bike also has space to tote gear, bags that can be stuffed with extra clothing, diapers, and snacks.” The Bisker family has now downsized to one van instead of two, saved enough money in three months to pay off the loan on the remaining van, and now have a financial cushion in their budget. They have gotten untold benefits from this new adventure ranging anywhere from becoming more healthy and sleeping better to getting to know their neighbors. Once they got used to not having a second vehicle (which they fill up about once a month now), they could see other things they could give up, things that society kept pressuring them to have as necessities. They gave up things like paper towels, sandwich bags, caller ID, voicemail, etc., and now enjoy a much simpler happy life.

Submitted by: Mike Perry

Just a Note from yours truly (Kim Wright)
You may have already seen this article, but it is worth repeating. It comes from the Charleston Daily Mail.

You may or may not know, my son Hunter and I race BMX, (one reason we have not been active cyclist w/ WW). Wanted to let everyone know how we finished up this past year. My first full year of racing, and Hunters 5th (I believe).

VA BMX state series:

Regional series:
Hunter: 14 cruiser 1st : 14 challenger 3rd Hunter: 14 challenger 5th
Kim: 40-44 cruiser 3rd : 35-40 challenger 1st (cruiser is 24”, challenger is 20”)

National series:
Hunter: 14 cruiser 14th : 14 challenger 23rd
Kim: 40-44 cruiser 8th : 35-40 challenger 2nd