The Best Ever (ME)

So this movie is a little taste of how I feel all year long, "the BEST." I have been skiing for only one year, but I can kick some serious RS employee-butt whenever we go skiing as a company. I feel pretty good about that.

Additionally, I don't know if any of you have noticed but I also write the most awesome blogs ever. You are welcome. ...

And sorry for not writing a blog for a week or two, or three. I have been busy winning at other things, like fixie races or drinking games or whatever I do.

You can be the best too, just stay out of Boulder. I am already the best in this county, sorry.

Inter Bike

I don't know if all of you heard, but Interbike was last week and it was simply awesome. Actually I am not sure because I didn't get to go, but looking at the pictures, it looks awesome!

Interbike is held in beautiful Las Vegas each year and brings hundreds of bike companies out to show off their new stuff. It is such a big deal I even got off work. It is like a national holiday for those in the cycling industry.

Sit back and just imagine what we all missed out on, and start making your calendar for next year.

Misery Loves Company

10.08.08

Shooting blood out of your nose is no way to start a group ride…

The temps are dropping here in Boulder and the air is getting crisp and dry (explaining the rouge-rockets). Arm warmers, knee warmers and a vest are a must for the wardrobe this time of year. The colder it gets the better it is to ride with a partner or a group. Misery does love company.

The good folks at Velo News invited me on an “easy” ride road this afternoon. For those of you new to cycling there are no “easy” rides when it comes to industry rides. There is "I'm going to make you throw-up" rides, "Lungs coming out your throat" rides, and "Are you crying?" rides. An industry ride can be defined as a group of guys and girls who managed to trick their spouses into thinking a life of gram counting, carbon coveting and rolling resistance discussions (surrounded by a paycheck) is the way to live.

My legs already felt like dead lumber as we started down the road. I had accumulated climbing footage over the previous weekend to the tune of 14,000 feet. Having moved to Boulder recently I felt it was important to acclimate as fast as possible. A crash course in thin air. The goal was to spin out the weekend’s poisons from my legs. I soon found myself producing more. All aboard! Next stop: Bonk Town…

The Tommaso Forma was my weapon of choice on this fine fall day. When you roll with the big boys it is best to show up on some carbon and Dura-Ace bling. This particular Tommaso in my quiver is built with a 53/39 FSA SL-K Carbon crank. My other Forma is built up with a 50/34 compact crank. As the road pointed up I was looking for the 34 tooth ring when all I had was the 39 tooth ring.

To make matters worse, I was attempting to pull my arm warmers up and lost my grip and punched myself in the throat. That did not help with getting air into my lungs. We were soon headed up Old Stage road. Old Stage tops out at 6357 feet. The climb does not look so bad but it really takes it out of you when you are trying to hang on to the wheel in front of you…and that wheel is moving away.

At the top of the climb the fast ones were nice enough to wait. My Adam’s apple had reappeared and I was almost breathing normal again. The descent into town was more to my liking. We formed a pace line and rolled back to the wonderful town of Boulder. Soon I was back at my desk downloading the ride data from my Garmin Edge 305 and seeing just how close my heart was to exploding into pink bits of matter.

As for the Velo boys…I will be back next week with the compact crank and another week at altitude. It can only get easier right? Right? Hello…Anyone? Right?

Thanks for reading!

Max D.

Team Randall Scott

Say Hola to T.R. (just not while he is sleeping)

Below is a blog post from our friend T.R. over at Tommaso. He travels the world to make sure that you can get sweet bikes and incredible prices. He is also a super good friend of ours and will have plenty of blog posts for us to pass along to you.

Traveling the world to make the best bicycles in the world sometimes takes you to the far corners of the earth as well as your human endurance. Sitting in a metal tube shooting across the ocean with 500 strangers for 18 hours can wear on you. Waking up in a 12 hour switch of time-zones really puts you to the test. You want to sleep all day and are wired all night. Falling asleep in the hotel limo only to be brought back from the depths of sleep by an Asian street peddler speaking Spanish really freaks out the grey matter.

The gentleman in the photo was pounding on my window saying “Hola” over and over and asking for money to clean the windows. By the time I figured out what country I was in and take a picture with my Blackberry the driver sped me away to the comforts of the hotel.

TR Maloney

Tommaso Product Manager and Asian Karaoke Star.