My main man Matt Pacocha gave me some hints that I’d be REALLY happy and low and behold, homie was RIGHT!

While the UCI shit-canned their use in competition at UCI sanctioned races, nothing is precluding us wanna be Sven’s from using them at our ACA or Cross Crusade races…that is until one of us catches a Diablo in the heiney sprinting it out for a box of Gu’s.

They’re $225 each (that’s $450 bones for the math challenged for a pair) and must be special ordered.

Read the whole article Matt wrote here including his on-bike test with featuring a video of Matt versus our home boy, former slipstream seigneur and Subaru Rally whore, Jonny Coln as the drag race cooter style across 27” thick ice.

My friend Sander, and author for Wielrennen Blog in the Netherlands, who was responsible for the article below I translated on the UCI banning the Diablo, sent me the film from Sporza on the Eindhoven ICE SKATING RINK. Ha! A couple of things to notice: Examine Sven's tire pressure on the low angle shots. More importantly, when you hear the pads squeal on his carbon Dura Ace Rims and he braking and turning, not how the wheel moves not one inch. Incredible.

Thanks to Matt Pacocha from VeloNews who forwarded me a brief article about the Dugast Diablo ban and all the hullabaloo it’s been causing since Sven’s testing of it in Eindhoven. I loosely translated this article originally found on http://wielrennen.blog.nl/. Molly Cameron also chimed in to me to state that he thinks the ban has been around for some time (still researching that….):

"Cyclocross riders may not ride with spikes or with small nails during World Cup events. The Dutch tire specialist Andre Dugast had a new tubular, called the Diabolo (Devil), made specifically for the conditions for Tabor. Dugast is no stranger to the cycling world, as most of the worlds best have ties to the company and race on their tires. In a first test of the course in Eindhoven, Sven Nys achieved a speed of up to 30 km / hour (!), Sporza reporter Marcel Wuyts says. During the World Cup broadcast next Sunday on Sporza a special segment on Sven Nys’ test of the tires in Eindhoven with be broadcast. 

Nys said in an initial reaction that the tires are phenomenally good. And a phenomenon they will always remain because the UCI has thrown in a wrench. When rumors reached the UCI on the spiked tires, they quickly reacted to ban. It would distort competition because less wealthy riders on the "old" treads will not be as competitive. Well, on an old tape you have to learn it? Seriously, it is not dangerous to life with nail bands around, crossing? Imagine that you are smacked against the floor by, say, a drunken supporter. See how quickly you’ll have to have a Czech doctor to find and pull all those nails out of your body.

Moreover, the Schwalbe tire manufacturer has a much longer relationship with spikes in its product range, but unfortunately for the racers, this involves an ATP band as well":

Here's a set of my Typhoons. Have a close look. Clearly on their last leg. Glued and sealed in 2008, they are still solidly on, yet starting to peel themselves from the base tape. This is an example of how water...when it seeps in and under the sidewall sealant (AquaSeal in this case) damages the cotton and wreaks havoc on the cotton.

Note that these sidewalls were sealed after the tires were glued on. I will be applying sealant before I glue this year, trying a new product alongside AquaSeal as well to determine which works best. Much like FMB or Challenge treat their products. Dugasts are sealed, yet I'm not sure with what! It simply can not stand up to the elements.

Photo: http://meriwether-rants.blogspot.com/38. Thirty eight. Years passed and stuff learned. And yet I never felt younger. Should it come, I'd be satisfied. Failing it coming, I can look forward with wide eyes and determined nerves. Happy.

I crave it, year after year. The changing of the leaves, the donning of fleece, the running of thinner knobbier rubber...and yet Colorado makes it difficult to envision the season of the changing leaves with it's desert like surroundings. The rain pours today like it has for days and it's green. All green. And wet. And Belgium...and I slip back to Mol...

I watched my Rhino rip into the peat-like earth. I brought the tire back to its place of birth. And while I should have been watching the bends in the lush singletrack they call a 'cross course, I couldn't help but look down and watch as the cotton casing and the perfectly pliable rubber bent and molded to the earth, sending small wakes of peat into the air as I turned the wheel left and right. Perfect. God's good earth given to us to race on.

Ned reminded me of this last night with Whit-J and Dubba. After work frolics to blow the tubes out on soil that should have been dusty and hard. Instead, our 29" wheels and tires dug into the earth in the same manner, getting me stoked for the season to come.

We're here. What did you do to get ready for cross? Years ago I would have said intervals or barrier work or suffer or...well, honestly anything naive. And now...simply....carve. Just let the tires do the work and smile.

So as geekdified as it sounds, I set this calendar reminder once a week to head on out into the car hole and go and fill my tubulars up to keep a wee bit inflated during the off season. Especially those that have Stans in them and they get a little turn on the skewer to mix the stuff up a bit...lest the Stans cause the latex tubes to get all stick together whiel sittle idle.

The rack you see here is super trick for wheel storage and inexpensive to throw together. A bunch of hardware store grade hooks staggered in two roes alternating one high and one low (so the skewers don't bump). I drill those into a piece of pine then attach that piece of pine to the studs in the wall. Insta-storage.

I'm going to run a mix of toobies next year. Some Dugast, some Challenge, some clincher...whatever the day brings. I have settled on one fact though that I am in LOVE with 34's....especially on the Colorado crap we have to endure out here. 

6 more months till 'cross.

...waiting to be glued and ridden. When is 'cross season?

Building. Rebuilding. Cold mornings. It's all coming into focus again....my mind feels the same way your eyes do when you come out of a movie theater in the mid afternoon on a sunny day. Part of me is thankful it's here....as it pulls me like an anchor each year to get me through. Then, before I know it...

...it's gone.

And then begin again.

I got out today to practice the skills I love to teach. Sloooooow technique. 1, 2, 3 dismount...1, 2, 3 mount. Repeat. hundres of times. Both sides. One hour. Active recovery.

My ribs still remind me. Am I dumb?

Bikes are coming into shape. Sold one set of Dura Ace and waiting for all the SRAM bits. But got the B bike dialed for now. Anyone locally interested in a set of Dura Ace cranks (175's), BB, 42t ring and dual Wetzikons? Email me if interested.

BCS's Jeremiah and his fandangled tubular stretcher.

B Bike. My training horse. I love it more than ever after my fit. Mmmm.

I dumped my 46c to c Ritchey bars for 44's. WAY better. Classic drop too. Yum.

The TRP EuroX Carbons are ripping. I took KP's advoice and treated the side of my Doogies too with aquaseal.

The A bike still has time. I still dunno when I am coming out to play yet....

I'm late late late. Typhoon's still stretching on my RD-488's but a second set still need a home to get them selves glued on to. very late this season.

Look left. Tree Farm's set up. RD800's and Typhoons Light and super strong. I'll be running it this year. Mmmm.

There is rain like you wouldn't believe here in the Republic. Cold too. Belgie style. But I can not see getting out there and risking a fat cold which is going around with the kids having that awesomme booger nose syndrome....and school hasn't even started. So intervals on the rollers today instead in the garage. The ribs make me feel like I need to vomit when I am laying down but riding it seems OK as long as I do not take in huge volumes of O2. Wrist is healing like a champ. I wish it were the other way around.

Nothing's been perfect for this year's lead up but I am still psyched for the changing of the leaves. I need to be an opportunist this year. No goals but smiles. Sincerely.

More news forthcoming.

Oh, and if I see you on the road, RAISE YOUR HAND TO SAY HI. You are not some PRO in the middle of an interval on Broadway. You get a hall pass if you are liquigas guy.

Photo credit: Jeff C's awesome photog wife.

I'm going for more all around tread pattern this year with a sets of 32's and 34's in the Typhoon pattern. These mofo's will sit and stretch for months down in the basement on their hoops.

It's April. I am already getting hungry.