Among professional mountain bikers, Ross Schnell is easily one of the friendliest, most laid back and approachable riders you’ll find. Lately he’s been doing more of the Super-D and fun stuff like the Breck Epic than the pure XC races, but he’s still fast as all get out and technically skilled like you wouldn’t believe. Here’s his response to our request for his favorite workout:

I’m glad to share some not-so-pro training advice.  I usually try and stick with the mountain bike for training because I’m training for mountain biking.  Novel idea isn’t it?  I haven’t ridden a road bike in years.  I think there is a big disconnect between a lot of elite mountain bikers and how they train.  At some point the fitness aspect doesn’t necessarily correlate to real world conditions.  I think its important to do long rides and a bit of volume from time to time.  I do a lot of long, exploration type rides in the mountains where I fill my hydration pack full of food and water and plan on getting lost all day.  During the season when I need a bit more “specificity” I stick to rides that I know.  A typical interval or punchy day has me doing hard sustained climbs (15-20 minutes) up pseudo-technical terrain that rewards me with a nice descent back down.  That way I kill two birds with one stone, fitness and skills training all in one.  The problem with going out and doing intervals on a road bike is that the technical side of things is totally ignored.  Its one thing to be able to push 400 watts going up a smooth climb, but when you factor in rocks, roots and varied terrain the situation changes dramatically.  When your brain goes hypoxic it has trouble keeping up with and processing constantly changing obstacles that take place on the trail.  I’m a firm believer in training your body to handle those real world circumstances while out on the trails.

Some of the most valuable workouts I do are shorter days where I focus on hard climbs and fast descents.  There are a lot of opportunities like this where I live.  I know exactly how long the climbs are and I can tailor my workouts around them.  A typical interval day consists of approximately 1-1.5hrs of hard climbing with the reward (and benefit) of good descents back down.  This approach seems to work well, and more than anything keeps my mind fresh so it doesn’t seem like such a chore to do a hard workout.

Of course now that its ski season I do the same routine but on skis.  I like to ski tour a bunch.  I do a nice long skin up, then get to enjoy the fruits of my labor while skiing down.  This approach to training generally keeps me motivated all year and helps me avoid mid-season burnout when the race season is going full-swing.

This video was shot with our test GoPro Hero HD camera using their Chesty mount. It was the first time I used this mount, so it was aimed a bit low…live and learn.  This shows the whole course set up in Bilenky Cycleworks’ backyard, which just so happens to be a junk yard, and was some of the most fun I’ve had “racing” in years.

Pics from the event after the break…

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• The 2011 Southern Cross endurance cyclocross race has changed venues for next year to the stunning Monteluce Winery and Estates of Dahlonega, GA. This new venue offers easier access, better terrain that lends itself to cross, the amazing views around the winery and the beautiful Tuscan style homes that dot the hills.   Prepare to be awed and challenged at this year’s Southern Cross as you roll through the Chatahoochee National Forest.
• R&A Cycles in New York is giving away $1,000 worth of Assos clothing on Christmas Day.  All you have to do to get a shot at having the best Christmas ever is register for free on their website.
• A new blog to cover the Road Tubeless phenomenon has launched called Go Tubeless and says it’ll post all the info you’ll ever need to know about how to use, choose and maintain tubeless tires.
• If you haven’t taken two minutes to check out Wilderness B, a Facebook page that advocates an alternate Wilderness designation for federal lands that would allow bicycles, please do so now. Strength in numbers, even if it is just “likes” for a page is the least you can do to help save trails. Feeling energetic? Suggest the page to your friends, too, and help us keep some of the best trails in the U.S. from being closed forever for no good reason.
• NAHBS (aka: North American Handmade Bicycle Show) is expecting a record number of booths for the 2011 show in Austin, TX. As of December 15, 2010, 136 exhibitors had signed up for the show, with several enquiries still pending and an expected total of 160. The greatest number of exhibitors at any NAHBS to date was 150 at Portland, Oregon, in 2008. The 2010 figure, in Richmond, Virginia, was 126. We’ve already gotten word that some of the builders that won awards last year are introducing some wild new concept bikes…can’t wait!
• Need a last minute gift idea, or wondering where to spend that cash? Gene Hamilton’s Better Ride mountain bike clinics have posted their 2011 schedule and some are already full or near full.  If you want to ride better, faster and smoother, we’ve heard good things about his clinics.
• Sidi is making a custom Ergo 2 Carbon Lite shoe for the 2011 Liquigas pro cycling team. Check it out after the break.
• Rapha is extending their worldwide free shipping offer until January 3, and they’ve just put a bunch of stuff on the 30% sale rack.
• Bud Nilsson wants you to be safer with Bud Brakes, an anti-lock braking system for your bike…

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Photo submitted by Corey Green from the Cyclocross National Championships in Bend, Oregon, on Dec. 11th. Ryan came in 2nd.

To see more Pics of the Day, click here, and to submit your own photo to be shown to the world, go here.

* Check out Cyclingdirt for an entertaining video of “Unicorns are Real” man above, fighting Gumby on the sidelines of Nationals!

Watching how the mainstream media deals with the subject of cycling never ceases to be entertaining. We feel so normal when we’re around each other, but don’t fool yourselves; we are still viewed as total freaks by the majority of people. This abc News story about a heart attack survivin’, cyclocrossin’ grandma from Bennet, Nebraska does a great job illustrating that fact. It’s worth sitting through the solid, minute-long advertisement before the story begins to hear lines like:

“It’s a bike race that pairs obstacles with rough terrain known as cyclocross. The physically demanding sport probably isn’t the place you’d expect to see a 68-year-old former school teacher and church organ playing grandma.”

It kind of makes it sound like cyclocross is the Devil’s work…or sport, as the case may be. “Oh my! A former school teacher and church organ playin’ grandma shouldn’t be doin’ that — gettin’ off a perfectly good bicycle and running with it…blasphemy!” While anyone who’s done some ‘cross will tell you, it can be hell, it’s probably not going to get you sent to hell. Maybe I’m reading to much into this.

Nancy Brown, the subject of the piece, is inspirational. At the opening of the video she states “Y’know, if you’re gonna be on the bike you might as well, y’know, go and see if you can beat somebody.” That’s pretty awesome. What’s more awesome is the part where she talks about smashing her teeth out, spitting them in her hand, and throwing them, to the horror of one of her competitors.

OK, that last part is entirely freaky.

Team Radioshack has announced their line-up for the Cancer Council Classic and The Tour Down Under. Lance Armstrong and yacht-disaster survivor, Robbie McEwen will be riding in both events.

Is this real? Or maybe it’s a  Santa Cruz joke? Are they teasing us, or could it be a cynical marketing ploy? Either way I am hooked and desperate to find out more! This is just taken from the Santa Cruz site, a carbon fiber 29er hardtail mountain bike which appears to weigh in at a bit over 20lbs.

More pictures and words from Santa Cruz after the break. (more…)

“Behind The Barriers” Episode 12 from Behind The Barriers on Vimeo.

Hot off the smoking hard drive of Sam Wiley Smith comes the latest installment of the Jeremy Powers reality show. In this episode we find our hero, J-Pow! battling the tallest man in Cyclocross, Ryan Trebon for the win at the 7th round of the USGP in Portland, Oregon. Having watched every episode of the series, I will say that this is definitely the best race footage I’ve seen so far. Not sure if it’s the fact that Smith switched to shooting with a DSLR or if he’s just generally upped his cinematographic game, but the shots of the Portland course are breathtaking. And I don’t even use the term breathtaking. Any time I say it, I want to punch myself right in the Netherlands.

The UCI and WFSGI* will meet with bike brands in Switzerland on January 13-14 to discuss pricing for the “Approved by UCI” product accreditation process.

It doesn’t appear that this is a licensing fee just for the right to place the stickers. Rather, the UCI will (through Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne’s bicycle testing labratory) test bicycle frames prior to approving them, and the test is expected to cost about $10,400 per frame.  So far, it’s not clear whether that’s per size, or just per frame design…technically, each frame size has to pass a country’s safety guidelines before it can be sold in the U.S. and Europe.

BikeBiz reports that the mid-January meeting in Switzerland will have talks from Pat McQuaid, UCI President; Robbert De Kock, Secretary General of WFSGI; Philippe Chevallier, the UCI Sport and Technical Director; Julien Carron, the UCI Technical Coordinator; and Professor Jan-Anders Månson of Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, the composites expert in charge of the accreditation process.

The cynics among us are laughing/crying that this is just a money making scheme by the UCI, but in reality, the testing costs (assuming a brand doesn’t have to put a frame through it more than once) would pale in comparison to the costs of changing a design after it’s gone into production just because a UCI official woke up on the wrong side of the bed on race day.

At the meeting, parties will also discuss retroactive testing of current model bikes for approval, too. The first products to be covered by the ‘approved by UCI’ labelling program are frames and forks (road, track, cyclo-cross but not yet BMX or MTB) in development from 1st November 2010.

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The now ubiquitous, classic GoPro Helmet HERO was great in its original incarnation. Then it went HD, and that was even better. And now the Helmet HERO is jamming another trick up its waterproof to 180′ casing — it’s going 3-D. OK, that’s not accurate, nothing is getting literally jammed up the waterproof casing. The camera itself will remain unchanged. To shoot 3-D video all you’re going to need is an additional GoPro Helmet Hero wearable camera, some software, and an “Expansion Kit,” which will be available next month. We assume the “Expansion Kit” will include the software (it better for $90) and some way of attaching the two cameras together. It’s hard to tell from the above photo how, exactly, the joining of the cameras is accomplished.

Apparently this development is so exciting, it is Fox News worthy. I am completely apolitical, I will not make any jokes about this, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t make jokes about it in the comments section. Or not. You can also take it very, very seriously…like I may or may not have.

The two cameras will run you about $360, which is significantly less than the cost of one name-brand 3-D camera, and you have the added bonus of being able to break the two cameras apart like a Voltron toy, to use them independently, if you’re feeling crazy. So all you’ll need is the two cameras, the expansion kit, maybe the software, and something to watch it on…

you’ve already got a 3-D monitor right? Heck, my microwave has a 3-D monitor.

I Love My Bicycle: The Story of FBM (Full Movie) from Joe Stakun on Vimeo.

From Joe Stakun’s Vimeo page:

In reaction to the big business run companies of BMX in the early 90′s, 17-year-old Steve Crandall started a company of his own called Fat Bald Men (FBM). What began as selling t-shirts out of a backpack has turned into one of the most well respected DIY bicycle companies around. Through fortune and misfortune follow FBM through their 15 years of mayhem as told by Steve Crandall and the rest of the BMX bicycle community from close friends to influential Icons like Dave Mirra and Mat Hoffman.

Got some time to kill over the holidays? Need to kick back and digest some ham and eggnog? (Wow, that’s a pleasant image.) Well, here’s an hour-long bicycle-related Vimeo movie to help you with your task. If you can call kicking back, digesting ham and eggnog a task.

This may not be a shocker to anyone but me but…did you know you that there’s a Vimeo channel on Hulu? You can now watch Danny MacAskill videos, easily, on your television. At least that’s what I’ve been doing…for the past 32 hours straight. You can also watch the above video like it’s real movie…like Avatar, but with a couple less nine-foot-tall blue people with tails.

Since our recent review of the Light & Motion SECA 1400, a number of you have emailed or commented about smaller brands or DIY projects that claim to compete with the big brands on lumens and battery life. Having tinkered with various bulbs, housings and batteries myself over the years (and melting a few reflectors in the process), I love seeing what others come up with.

Icarus Lights is a relatively new brand out of Portland, OR, that’s managed to get a whopping 700 lumens and some massive battery life out of a miniscule package…and they’ve got some new projects in the works to expand the line and functionality. The icing on top? You can customize the beam pattern on their website during the checkout process with a slider scale that shows actual photos as you move it so you can get it just the way you want. Very cool.

The icing on top of the icing is the battery pack…it’s carbon fiber.

If you’re already familiar with them, you’ll wanna jump past the break for pics of their brand new batteries, and if you’ve never heard of them, our Q&A with founder Pat Gerke will fill you in on how it got started…

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