Rider Profile: Mike Brindza

Life Cycle:  Place and date of birth?

Mike Brindza: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, June 22nd 1982

LC: How long have you been riding and what got you started?

MB:  Other than cruising around the cul-de-sac, I got my first serious mountain bike around 13, to cruise the local trails with a friend.  Got into racing a little working for a shop in high school.  Got back into racing cause of a girl in grad school.  Racing=awesome idea.  That girl=Well, we all make mistakes.

LC: First race experience?

MB: The day I got that bike, me and some guys doing a really stupid downhill in Frick park.  Also did some east coast mountain bike racing in the late ’90’s.  Then returned after a long layoff (with some collegiate rowing in between) to race for my grad school, University of Maryland.

LC: First ride and current ride?

MB: First mtb:  1995 Specialized Rockhopper (still in the parents basement)

First road bike:  Late ’90’s Cannondale caad3
Latest road bike:  Specialized Tarmac.  I like it cause it’s blue.  Now has the patented narrow Gilad Gozlan bars on it.

LC: Would you rather hang with Han Solo or Indiana Jones?

MB: They named him Junior.  The dog was called Indy.

LC: Goals for the year?

MB:Race a lot, help you guys win a few.  Lose weight, and learn to go uphill.  58 minute 40K TT.  Hopefully faster than that.

LC: Favorite Pro cyclist?

MB: Jens Voigt.  “I say, Shut up, legs! Do what I tell you to do.”

LC: What do you do outside of cycling?

MB: I’m a chemist, a horrible golfer, and beer snob.

LC:  Pre-race meals?

MB: Eggs, toast, coffee, banana.  At least 3 hours prior.

LC: What is the only mammal that can fly?

MB: The most dangerous mammal of all.  Man. (uh well sure, and bats)

LC: The last Monument of the year is the Giro di Lombardia. By what nickname is it known?

MB: la classica delle foglie morte. Thank you wikipedia.  Does anyone know how to say this in Flemish? The velonews on the back of my toilet seems to think Gilbert is going to win again. (-3 for using wikipedia, +1 for answering in Flemish)

LC:  How often do you pump your tires?

MB : Every ride.  Big guys get a lot of pinch flats.

LC: What music do you listen to when you need to get pumped up?

MB: Tool.  Race day warm up is Lateralus.

LC; Anything else you’d like to add?

MB: Can someone teach me Flemish?  Who’s coming to Belgium with me next spring?

Rider Profile: Nick Alden

Life Cycle:  Where and when were you born?

Nick Alden: Albany, OR 1982

LC: How long have you’ve been riding?

NA: About 2 years.

LC: What/ when was you’re first race experience?

NA: Eugene Celebration 2008

LC: First ride & current ride?

NA: Trek 1000 (still my training bike), Giant TCR 0

LC: Would you rather hang with Han Solo or Indiana Jones, and why?

NA: Indiana Jones – whips are way cooler than blasters.

LC: Goals for the year?

NA: PR in the TT series (uphill and flat), place well in the road races and crits & keep the rubber side of my bike down & between the ditches

LC: What do you do outside of cycling?

NA: Design Engineer, Homebrewing, Triathlon, Home remodeling

LC: Who were the 7 Americans that rode the 2009 Tour de France?

NA: Lance Armstrong, Bradley Wiggins, David Zabriskie, Tyler Farrar, Danny Pate, Christian Vande Velde, George Hincapie. ( close but not 100% correct, Wiggins is English the 7th American was of course Levi Leipheimer who withdrew after breaking his wrist in stage 12)

LC: How often do you pump your tires?

NA: Weekly/Pre-race

LC: Anything else you’d like to add?

NA: I bike commute to work year-round and you should too.

Rider Profile: Scott Hill

Life Cycle: DOB?

Scott Hill: 5/7/1972

LC: How long have you been riding?                            

SH: This will be the start of my 16th season

LC: What was your first race and how did you do?

SH: My first race was the Le Sprie road race in Lexington, KY. It was a hilly course and I had no clue what I was doing. I attacked on the first small climb,saw my HR hit 172 for the first time, then got scared and backed off. At some point during the race I got dropped and rolled in by myself. I don’t think I finished last but I am sure I was close.

LC: How about your first and current ride?

SH: My first bike was a carbon, aluminum lugged Specialized Epic. I bought it from a “friend” who lied to me about the size. He told me it was a 56 but it was really a 58. I did not know the difference. My current bike is a 5.5 Madone.

LC: Campy, SRAM, Shimano?

SH: Well I have been a Shimano DA person from the start, but am getting ready to order a new Sram Red groupo in the next couple of weeks. Time for a change

LC: Goals for the year?

SH: To win a race. I have the same goal every year. I got pretty close in some big races in Oregon and St. Louis.

LC: Favorite pre race food?

SH: I don’t have any particular pre race food. I will eat Subway if we are on the road to a race. Whatever I do eat, it will be very blan, because I don’t want to puke it up later.

LC: What are you doing when not riding?

SH: I am a stay at home Dad.

LC: What are the names of the Ghostbusters?

SH: Ray, Peter and Winston (close, he forgot Dr. Egon Spengler)

LC: How often do you pump your tires?

SH: I pump them up about once a week.

A New Year

All right  all a new year is almost here. A new year of riding, racing and kicking butt. Congratulations to everyone on a great year in 2009. From early  strong results in the road races through crit season and finishing up with cross our team did the argyle proud.

If you haven’t started training for next year the time is now.  Need some motivation? Here’s the OBRA 2010 schedule.

So get those goals set …. get on the bike….and make it happen. As Gilad would say “Do It”

My goal for the team? Top 10 in the team BAR standings.

Psycho Cross Series.

With the last Psycho cross series wrapped up the end of the racing season is officially here. Congrats to everyone for a great year. Considering that the “team” this year consisted of nothing more than a few folks wearing the same jersey the results were impressive. I know we are all looking forward to an awesome 2010 so start getting those miles in if you haven’t already, the first race of the year, Cherry Pie, is only 53 days away.

Results from last weekend

1 60 Coontz Brian men's master C 3 1110 Alden Nicolas men's beginner 4 537 Hill Scott men's master B 3 215 Hill Heather women's A Scott Hill looking good

Cross!!

Wait people are racing? Ah yes while most roadies are starting or well into base miles some have been tearing it up at the local cross races.

Psycho Cross Pseries
Eugene, OR
November 29, 2009

3 Nicolas Alden: Men’s beginner
9 Scott Hill: Men’s B Master
3 Heather Hill: Women’s A

Psycho Cross Pseries
Eugene, OR
November 21, 2009

3 Geoffery Huber: Men’s A
10 Jeremy Garbellano: Men’s B
5 Heather Hill: Women’s A

Heather and Nick

Club Team/Rides

Love to ride but not sure about competition? Maybe the Club team is the place for you.

Starting the first Saturday of December (12/5/09) and meeting every Saturday after there will be a club ride option leaving from the shop at 9 am. The club rides will be no-drop and be ridden at a non-competitive pace. We’ll be striving to have ride leaders at each ride and encourage everyone to look out for one another.

Ride routes will vary but stay in the 40 to 50 mile range. A link for a map of the upcoming weekend ride will be provided by midweek.

Have a favorite ride you’d like to do let us know. Also we’ll be looking for ride leaders to volunteer for future rides.

A New Beginning

Welcome all. Life Cycle Bike shop in Eugene Oregon is starting a new racing team for the 2010 season and beyond. While there have always been a few brave souls who have slipped on the argyle blue/green kit we were never a fully organized team, this year that changes. We’ve already built up an impressive roster which will see us being competitive from the hilly  races of the spring to the flat and fast criteriums come summer.

This site is very new and will be going through lots of changes as I learn to navigate my way around.

Looking for a team to join? Contact the team manager at lifecycleracing@gmail.com