International TV time from 2013.

Thinking about the French Alps.

Working on routes and climbs for Cyclesport travels Alp's trip in July of this year.

All are new to us, and some are new the the Tour de France. But all will be memorable to everyone.

Gopro dude

The Mad Billionaire Behind GoPro: The World's Hottest Camera Company http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2013/03/04/the-mad-billionaire-behind-gopro-the-worlds-hottest-camera-company/

Trainer time can be fun time!

Feel like your just spinning your wheels on the trainer all by yourself? Ride with Cronometro Saturday mornings 8:30 A.M. We have space and a few extra trainers. Please call to have one reserved for you. It is first come first served. Don't miss your chance.

What did you do on New Years day?

This is what my boy's and I worked on.

Needing motivation!

The weather finally turned to winter, had a few inches of snow this week. Good news is the world didn't end! Bad news, my bike riding has. Need to get motivated to get on the trainer. France is coming soon and I need to be able to enjoy it!

Cyclesport travel 2013.

With the 2012 Cyclesport Travel trips winding down, it’s time to make plans for 2013. And with the tour in full swing now, you have the chance to see the beauty that we will be riding in next year.

Stages to watch:

Sunday July 15th, Stage 14:
This stage goes right through Cyclesport Travel’s home base--Vicdessos.  Watch for Colin and guests near the top of the Port de Lers climb. This stage will take you past one of my favorite spots in this part of France. A beautiful waterfall can be viewed two thirds of the way up the climb. Everywhere you look there is beauty, but for some reason this place is special to me.




Wednesday July 18th, Stage 16:

This is a big stage with a lot of climbing. Watch as the riders climb the back side of the Tourmalet, ride up the Aspin and through our second-week base, Arreau.

One of the last switchbacks to the top of the Tourmalet

Col d’ Aspin -- this climb is right out our back door in Arreau; less then 1k away.

Thursday July 19th Stage 17.

Once again, they’ll be on the same roads that we ride, starting in Luchon and traveling counterclockwise to the climb up Port de Bales. This year's guests just rode it Tuesday (July 3rd) and simply loved the gorgeous wooded climb. After a lengthy descent,  it’s up the final two thirds of the Col de Peyresourde.

So camp out in front of your TV for the next few days and take in all the beauty that is France in July. Think about the climbs and descents, knowing that next year you can be there!

And to help you get there in 2013, Cyclesport Travel is offering you a $200 discount, plus a price guarantee for the trip, if you make a $500 deposit by September 1st. What you will get is:

Pyrenees playground trip, June 24th-July 6th

$200 discount

$4400 price guarantee ($4200 with discount).

100% deposit refund until December 31st 2012

Cyclesport travel Tour de France trip

Date still TBD.

$200 discount

$4200 price guarantee ($4000 with discount)

100% deposit refund until December 31st 2012

It’s the trip of a lifetime!

Contact us via e-mail at Scott@cyclesporttravel.com
Call 608-352-0245 or 608-243-7760.
Contact us and get your 2013 vacation plans started.

Follow us on Twitter @CSportTravel
Like us on Facebook

Tour de France 2012 - The route

Looks like fun!

First ride on the 622/2012 Red

Had a great ride today, a bit windy but all in all a great day. The new Seven cycles 622 frame is a joy to ride. Need to get a few more miles on it before I comment to much. But so far, this is one of the best bikes I have ever ridden. As for the New SRAM Red? Flawless! The front derailleur may look misaligned but it preformed flawlessly. And I think if your not careful you could get thrown over the bars. But more on that later as well.

Latest toy.

Tomorrow is going to be a fun day.

RED,E.P.S. and Vector power pedals

2012 SRAM RED

I have had two chances to look at the new Red, neither gave me the chance to shift or test ride. With a little luck I will have it set up on a bike in 2 weeks, I'll let you know how it goes. Looks cool and if the front shifting is improved this is going to be a great group!

New more powerful braking, cam action.

Front der is according to SRAM greatly improved! And it needed too be! Lets hope it is.

Redesigned shift ramps.

New shape and an allen wrench to adjust the reach on the double tap lever!

Chain catcher, may or may not need it.

Elastomer between the cassette rings help quiet down the chain noise

More cut outs and alloy cogs.

 CAMPAGNOLO EPS SUPER RECORD!

I did get the chance to ride this on a trainer, I know it not the same as on the road. It shifted great and had a "real" feel. I also went through the 3 1/2 hour training session. If I wasn't pumped up enough be I was afterwards. EPS offers so many fetchers that Di2 does not. The most impressive one is gear adjusting on the fly. If you have a wheel change during a event and your gears do not shift properly you can adjust them while your riding. .4mm at a time, fine tune it and never miss a beat! Also if for some reason your battery dies  or the cable is lost, you can manually shift the rear derailleur into any cog that you want. Just another nice little plus. It is a little pricey Record complete group will sell for around $4400.00 and Super Record for around $5200.00. But for people that want it the price won't matter!

You would think they would do a better job of wrapping the bar with everyone taking pictures and posting them on like?

The Battery and brains of the system

  Control center lights the way. You'll need to know your colors. If your color blind it could be ruff!

GARMIN VECTOR PEDALS

Yeah, Still dreaming about these, if they ever ship I think it will be a very popular power meter. But its still a BIG "IF". At least I got a chance to see them, talked with a rep that said he has been using them. But still some bugs in the system that need to be worked out.

Super Bowl Sunday ride.

I think this is the first time, or at least the first time I can remember going on a road bike ride on Super bowl Sunday. I may have went on a few mountain bike rides a long time ago,  but nothing in recent memory. But today I got out for an hour and a half. This winter in Wisconsin has been great for being able to get out and ride. We keep waiting for the "really bad stuff" to hit, but it hadn't. And im ok with that. The more nice days we have the closer to spring we get.

Always recheck you stem after doing adjustments. This was driving me crazy the whole ride. Kept wanting to turn right.

The river was very calm and unfrozen today.

Bad start to the day.

Its funny how a little piece of metal can run your day. Left for work yesterday morning, and the car just didn't sound or feel right. Pulled into a parking lot and took a look, damn flat tire! Drove over the the air pump. Four quarters later I was looking for a tire shop.And on the south side of JVL there's not a lot of places to have that done. But I found one. Lets just say they did a good job of fixing my tire, and I won't get into the fact that everything was covered in dog hair and smelled of dog pee! He got me back on the road, I wasn't later for work and its all good. So I took a picture of the little sliver, Its amazing how something can cause your world to get put on hold for a few minutes.

Thinking about France

I just found this picture that one of our Guest took this year in France. If you can tell it was a wet and cold day. And this was almost to the top of a 10 or 12k climb. I was glad to see the top. On the decent the sun came out for a little bit and the road dried out, which made for a nice and fast decent. This was a nice day in the saddle.

Finally they have what I've wanted for years.

Chris King has finally started making campagnolo freehub body's. Only available on the R45 hub but that's the hubs you want to use anyway. Now I just need to get a set.


 

Cyclesport Travel information meeting

Cyclesport Travel/Cronometro

Cycling Vacation information night.

Have you ever thought about a cycling vacation in France, how about Italy? Thursday, January 19th is your chance to stop in and check out the great trips

Cyclesport Travel is offering for 2012.

The Pyrenees Playground Trip June 25th to July 7th
This trip include an opportunity to participate in the Ariegeiose Cyclosportive and ride virtually all the important Pyrenees climbs.
Castles, cave paintings, the Tourmalet, Plateau de Beille, Ancizan, Col dAspin, Col d Agnes, the Corniche and the Mamar are all
on the menu for this incredible experience.



This years L'Ariegeoise Cyclosportive will finish atop Plateau de Beille in the L'Ariegeoise 161km and La Mountagnole 117km events.



Tour de France trip July 9th to July 17th
Experience the TDF like the French villages do! We will let the Tour come to us in the our mountain village and ride up the Port de Lers to watch the pros!
Ride every day and come back to your cabin or head down to the local bar to watch the Tour excitement.






You will have the chance to ride the 18 percent grade on the last climb of stage 14 before the tour attacks it.

Italy, Gran Fondo Prosecco and Chianti October 1st -10th
Ride through two beautiful wine producing regions and celebrate by rolling through the Prosecco vineyards during the Gran Fondo on Oct 7th.
 LINK TO GRAN FONDO PROSECCO


We will have wine and cheese snacks and lots of pictures of past trips.
Time: 6:00-8:00

We hope to see you then.
Colin, Dave, Mark and Scott

Cyclesport Travel is now able to take credit cards! Just our way of trying to make your trip more convenient.

Just wait 24 hours!

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday the high in Madison was 55, today we awoke to 28 degrees,  20 minutes later it started to snow. Needless to say 28 was the high for the day. Made it to work scooped the sidewalk for the first time. 3 hours later did it again. And at 4:30 did it one last time. By the time o left for home, (45 minutes early) I would guess we had about 6" or more on the ground.
The drive home was when the fun really started. This is Wisconsin we are supposed to be able to drive in the snow. We shouldn't need to relearn this after every snow storm, should we!?! But I guess it has been a long time.
Few rules to remember:

Put the cell phone down!
Slow down, you don't want to stop, but slow down!
Look ahead, plan where you want to be before you need to be there.
Don't tailgate!
Four wheel drive is not FOUR WHEEL STOP!

OK, now i'm done.

Old memories.

I use to help out a friend chase his Hot air balloon. We had a lot of fun, I even had the chance to go up a few times. I had forgotten how big they are.

Two rides in three days

Started out 2012 with 2 rides in the first week. Took a couple of hours off work to ride out to Cross Nationals in Madison on Friday. And then got out for a couple more hours on Sunday. Two rides outside in January, and almost 50 miles. Works for me.