It's all about performance...

24 Hour Race course

MEET at the clubhouse at 9am.

U of Arizona Crit

Meeting at the Club house at 9:30am.

We should be at the start/ finish line before 10am.

I would like to get a real good warm up in before the race as it is only 20 minutes long. So lets be ready when we get there at 9:30.

Please tell everyone you know to come and to be ready to just about loose their voice. If you bring a lawn chair, I will assure you, you will sit in it for about 2 minutes max.

Also the U of A cycling club has asked if we can help them at 2pm, for about half an hour. So if you feel like you can that would be great.

See you tomorrow,
Ignacio

GABA Rides

GABA, the Greater Arizona Bicycle Association, is a great supporter of our team, and it is because of them that we get to go on so many fun overnight bike rides.

To make such events financialy available to us they have allowed us to do worktrade to participate. The deal is we have to do 2 hours of worktrade for every one day ride we want to do.

So for one person to ride in a three day tour that person needs to put in 6 hours.

The worktrade opportunities do not come up all too often so I am going to try very hard to let everyone know when things come up.

One re-occuring thing though that we can do and should be on top of is, attending their monthly meetings on the first Monday of every month. We can do WT there. Mostly just helping set the meeting hall up and taking it down.

I know there are some of you that really enjoy the GABA rides and others of you that have them as your big yearly goal. Daniela and I will be attending the meeting this February 1st. They are held at a random office at Grant and Rosemont and they start at 7pm. More info can be found at www.bikegaba.org.

Note: Bike valeting at the swap meet counts as hours, and hours are cumulative. So as a group we can accumulate hours. So in theory Julia could do all the hours for the whole team to go on a trip.

Thanks Julia,

Ignacio

Skills Clinic

Thisi past Saturday the 23rd of January the USA Cycling Junior National coach Barney King came to town and put on a skills clinic for the team. We definitely learned a lot, I learned a lot, and I know the team had a good time. I want to thank Barney and Son, Hunter, for putting this on and creating such a great time.

For me it is humbling to think that a small team like ours that started in my house with crummy bikes and some real random kids has come so far. This is a real testament to the kids on this team and the level of commitment that they are putting in. It really has little to do with me. I just show up and open the door and have an idea. It is the kids that make this thing happen and get it recognized.

So I want to thank all the Riders past and present that have believed in me and my idea and have created something special. If we keep this up, well the sky is absolutely the limit. Lets set some lofty goals and lets go get them. Because if you would have asked me 5 years ago if this team would be were it is today, I'm not quite sure I would have believed it.

I certainly wanted to get to this, and I just kept plotting along. Just like Barney said it takes 10 years to get your body in peak shape for an endurance sport and so that is how I see this team. In another 5 years who knows where we will be, but I hope I would not believe it today.

THANKS TO ALL COACHES, RIDERS, AND PARENTS PAST AND PRESENT EVERY ONE OF YOU MADE THIS HAPPEN!!!!!!!!!!

Enjoy Kathleens sweet pics of the days drills.

Let the Racing Begin

Your SWEET new bike racing parts have arrived!!!

During the past few racing seasons El Grupo has not only had to race against the pack on heavy old, recycled with used parts, self built, second hand, yet awesome, steel bikes, we often had to then race with blocked out gears. Which means that we did not have a full range of gears to race with.

But not this year. For every racing bike in our stable I was able to acquire proper junior cassettes and chain rings. So don't you know your 9 speed will actually be a 9 speed and not a 7 speed.

I am really excited about this and have to thank Fairwheel Bikes for making it happen. THANKS RALPH!!!!

For those of you that know you will be racing this season and have a race bike just ask me tomorrow at practice and we will set up a time.

I also want to thank the Tucson Bike Scene for hooking us up with some sweet racing bikes this season. There are going to be a few El Grupo bikes at the races this year that can't rust.

I am excited and am sure that we are going to have some fun, so here to a good season of giving them hell.

Ignacio

Skills Clinic This Saturday

As you have seen on your calenders this Saturday we are going to be participating in a skills clinic that is going to be led by the USA Cycling Junior National Team Coach, Barney King. This is a very big deal and I am thrilled that he is taking the time to come down to our town to do this. We should all be very excited about this.

It is going to start at 1pm on the U of A campus. So I am going to ask that all of you meet me at the clubhouse at 12:30 sharp on Saturday. Please come well fed and ready to go.

Team Jerseys are mandatory if you have one and just make sure that everything else is well prepared. I want to meet them on campus on time and looking sharp. So please let's put our best foot forward.

It should last, I am told, about 3 hours so we should assume an end time of about 4pm.

This is going to be something that no matter what your interest in cycling is, it is going to make us better cyclists by virtue of making us better bike handlers. So there is going to be something for everyone here.

This is a huge opportunity for our little start up club and so I am really hoping that all riders and coaches come with a great attitude. I want Barney to see the greatness that I see in this team all the time.

There will then be no practice on Sunday; however, I will make the clubhouse available if anyone would like to pick up their MTB's to go riding on Sunday.

Ignacio

Thanks Quebecers

Thanks Quebecers!!!!

They came, we ate, sang Donovan Happy Birthday in English and French and ate brownies and cookies. It was a great time and hopefully something we can do again next year. It was very enlightening to the El Grupo kids I'm sure and probably pretty fun for the Quebecers. So Thanks everyone who made this happen and especially to Nippy,

KATHLEEN AND JUDITH for cooking all the food and really making it happen.

Ignacio

Little Help

So this evening I have set up a night time MTB bike ride with a friend of mine DJ. He works for and promotes the Light and Motion super power bicycle lights. He has ten lights and he leads demo rides for folks so they get super excited about the sweet product and then go buy one.

We are meeting tonight at the clubhouse at 6pm and then we are going to go to Fantasy Island. We should be riding by 6:45pm and hopefully we are back by 9:30pm.

Just one thing: BY MY CALCULATIONS WE ARE STILL ONE LIGHT SHORT!!!!!!!!

If anybody reading this thing can obtain or let us borrow a very high powered night time riding light that would be fantastic.

Please let me know, or if there is somebody who knows that they can not make practice tonight also let me know as then we do not have a problem.

Thanks everyone and see you tonight.

Ignacio

The Canadians are Here - Friday!

As promised, you will all get to meet and eat with the Quebec (Canada) provincial mountain bike team this coming Friday after practice. That is right, we will still have practice on Friday at 4:30pm to do sprints on the river path and then bike handling in the grass at Stone Curves, where we will have the dinner.

The dinner will not start until 7pm, but you will all be there from after practice to help set up, make food, and get everything ready. Max's mother will be purchasing all the food to feed about 40 people (Canadian riders/coaches and El Grupo riders/coaches) and we can be there to help with last minute things. Parents are welcome to join us if you would like, and if you do, please consider bringing something to help supplement. Otherwise, riders do not need to bring food as we should have plenty.

Also, please bring a change of clothes with you...maybe Kathleen can carry that in her car back to Stone Curves??

If possible, please plan on getting picked up at Stone Curves after the dinner (roughly between 8pm and 8:30pm), and please make sure you have your bike lights with you!!

Thanks to Nippy for setting this up...we should all be excited to get such a cool opportunity to meet folks who like to ride bikes as much as we do!

Crit Training

This Saturday the 16th of January a few El Grupo riders have been invited to participate in a Crit racing workshop to be held at the Fairgrounds on the south east part of town. Some of you might remember this as the race course for the Colossal Cave race last year.

The event is to start at 8am and will go to 11am.

Riders who have been signed up are as follows:
Pablo, Matthew, Tulio, Kramer, Donovan, Lizzy.

As transportation goes I am hoping that between Matthew's and Tulio's parents we can make this work. I think it would be easiest if you all met in the morning at the club house and left from there. Maybe meet at 7:15am?

Natalie, Jeannette, Dean, Does this work?

Please post if that is ok.

Thanks for all the help
Ignacio

Sunday - Monthly Team Meeting

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT SO WE KNOW THAT EVERYONE IS COMING!!!!!!!!! MANDATORY

Sunday's practice will begin at 10am...going out to Sweetwater for MTB practice.

Following practice, roughly at 2pm, we will have a TEAM MEETING at the clubhouse to discuss upcoming events, practice and race calendars, work trade expectations, etc. We will begin to have these on a monthly basis, ideally the first Sunday of the month, to disseminate information more effectively. Hopefully, this will lead to us all knowing what is up ahead and planning for it, as opposed to Ignacio and Daniela spewing information at you before/after practices each week.

Parents are welcome and encouraged to attend. We will have some snacks to hold you off, and these will not last longer than an hour. We also hope to set up some guest speakers at future meetings, such as local Olympic athletes, professional cyclists, and so forth.

For the January meeting, we have a lot to discuss regarding the upcoming 24 hour race and trip to Hermosillo in February, and need to plan ahead for these now. We are also making some changes in the work trade expectations and starting minimal rider dues, so you will most definitely want to be there to hear about all of this. You will be expected to attend these meetings, so please plan on it for this next Sunday.

If you have any questions, or already know that you will not make it to the meeting, please let us know now. We have a lot of exciting adventures coming up soon, and we want to make sure that everyone gets to participate and have fun doing so.

This weeks practices posted

Wed. -- Starr Pass repeats
Something that will help simulate the continued attacks of a good crit. It helps with bike handling skills and the like. I hope for this practice to have a good continues rhythm where can really get into a groove.

Fri-- A MTN Repeats
A great way to gauge where we are now to where we were not long ago. Also some good super hard efforts will only do us good.

Sat-- I will be out on the "old man shootout" with hopefully a few of you. Except not Pablo. He will be working that day with the great Jimbo and Max and I suppose you might be with the "big boy ride".

Sun-- MTB day--- Most likely Sweetwater because I can say so.

Because I LoveEvery Kind of Bike

I got this from the GABA newsletter, and I want everyone to read this. Thanks. This is one of those things that drives me nuts. Go to any park in this town after school hours and tell me what you see. Empty ball fields. Then go to one of the many locations where kids are known to BMX and skate and you know what packed. Go to the Santa Rita park after school and that skate park is slama jama. We want kids to get off the coach, stop writing their name all over everything, and be healthier, yet we make it difficult to do so if we do not provide the space for it to happen. And then kids go out and they get tickets for exercising and they become "bad". That's right BMXing is exercising just in a different way that is not watching the tv on a tread mill and since it is different we say oh it's bad. Duh!!!

BMX Struggles For A Home In Tucson

By Mike Hines

Currently in Tucson, Arizona there are no safe, legal places to ride BMX freestyle.

For the past year myself and others have been organizing the large BMX community

in the Old Pueblo to speak up and do something about it. In

January of 2009 I found out that the new skate park in Santa

Rita park,

at 22nd and 3rd Ave., would not be opening its gates to

BMX riders. I felt hurt, and was shocked to find out that a

bicycle friendly community like ours would not be catering

to a common user group of such facilities. I quickly started

contacting Parks and Rec about the decision, only to discover

that they were in the dark about BMX freestyle and had no

idea that BMX even rode skate parks. Being involved in

the sport for almost 20 years now, I was naive to think that

everyone knew what our sport entailed.

BMX freestyle has completely transitioned and adapted to the

urban environment since the 70’s, often imitating and using

the same ground as skateboarders. As skateboarding rose

from an outlaw youth activity, to mainstream TV, and a sport

for the whole family, BMX has always been left a few steps

behind. With the popularity of the X-games and the Olympics,

BMX has grown leaps and bounds, I can’t drive down the

street today without seeing someone hopping on and off the

sidewalk on a BMX bike. When I started riding in the late 80’s

and early 90’s there were only a handful of us and it seemed

that everyone knew each other. Now I’m lucky if I don’t

see a new face when I go to some of the local riding spots.

Unfortunately, all those local spots are illegal to ride.

The majority of riders today are riding drainage ditches infested with broken glass,

nails, and sometimes an angry bum. We travel all over town riding on public and

private property hoping to find something worth a quick session, and in the mean time

avoid security guards, police, or angry business owners. We’ve been known to seek

out abandoned houses with empty swimming

pools in the backyard, hoping to emulate the

million dollar skate parks that we are often

arrested, or ticketed for using. But, the most

important meeting we try to avoid, is the

meeting between us and a speeding vehicle.

In May of 2007, just two days away from his

15th birthday, BMX rider and beloved son,

Kory Laos was hit and killed by a motorist on

Speedway Blvd. Kory’s parents, family, and

friends were devastated, along with the local

BMX community. The Laos family is working

hard to honor their son by building a BMX

park in his name. The land has been donated, the county has approved the naming,

and approved the need for such a facility. However, there are no funds for the project

and every year it gets pushed back. The Laos family and

I have proposed a temporary dirt facility that will cost

close to nothing, where riders of all ages can practice their

tricks in a safe environment, but it has been stalled in risk

management. It seems to me that around every corner I turn

the city of Tucson and Pima county have back pedaled on

BMX. I think they have concerns of us being a liability at the

FIVE local skate parks in town, worried that we may collide

with one another, or a skateboarder. I feel that it is more of

a liability to have us on the streets avoiding traffic, getting

arrested, chased, threatened, and treated like outlaws

when all we are really trying to do is have fun, get exercise,

and for some of us bring an Olympic gold medal home to

Tucson. I also feel that the city has confused the freestyle

aspect with the racing aspect of our sport. The two couldn’t

be more different, other than the fact that they are on

similar bikes. But, would you consider mountain biking and

cycling the same? What about volleyball and basketball?

Volleyball and basketball can be played on the same court

legally, why can’t BMX and skateboarding do the same in

skate parks? Maybe sharing is the wrong message to send

to our youth. It’s hard not to get somewhat jaded from this

whole experience, when we’ve been to multiple city council

meetings, met with the assistant city manager, the director

of Parks and Rec, county officials, only to be still in the

same position we were in when we first started.

I think there is a common misconception about what facilities are needed, or would be

appropriate for BMX. We can do small projects in parks and communities all over the

city. Some can cost little to no money. Majority of the riders like riding urban plaza-style

areas that have small benches, ledges, stairs, and rails. Some of these “plaza parks”

are being built all over the northwest for skaters and BMX riders. Communities are

figuring out that they can build small areas for both sports that cost around 10-20,000

dollars. They take up about the same area of a basketball court or two and often look

like a nice area to sit and relax (if there weren’t skaters and BMXer’s zooming in every

direction). BMX can also use empty lots and build “dirt jumps” to ride on. The riders

themselves keep up the area, and build to their skill levels. We don’t need a 2 million

dollar facility to keep the BMX riders safe. We just need designated areas, simple

solutions, and open minds.

I’d like to reach out to the whole cycling community, in hopes that with enough support

from others, BMX will have a safe and legal place to ride in Tucson.

Resources: clickedbmx.com / bmxriders.org

Sunday january 3rd Practicee

KISS ME I MOUNTAIN BIKE



Meet: 10am

Where are we riding: Fantasy Island

Why: Because Lizzy said so, and its her birthday so she can choose if she wants to

HOWEVER: This is the last time before the 24 Hour race that we are going out to Fantasy Island. We need to start to up the ante on our MTB skills. We are all ready to and so I will make a point of it.

See you then
Ignacio

Hey Lizzy

Can you tell us what ride you want to do on Sunday, so we all know how to prepare. Unfortunately we can not do the 24 hour course. It takes a bit more planning. However any road or dirt ride is open for you choosing.

Please post your ride and everybody else please be aware so you know what to bring.

Ignacio

SUNDAY MEET AT 10zm at clubhouse