A quick report from Team Rhino Rush. Yeah buddy!

We can't believe the Fall season is upon us! This has been one of best years yet in terms of rider strength, teamwork and development. We've truly met our goal of supporting great riders who are great people.

ON THE ROAD

Bogus - Every year the Bogus Basin hill climb serves as the benchmark for all Treasure Valley Cyclists in pursuit of the sub hour ascent. This year we had Five riders do the sub hour Bogus! Congrats to Jackson Swanson, Brent Gorman, Justin Mayfield, Eric Gregg and John Salmon, for attaining a great accomplishment.

Twilight Criterium - Every year in July you can feel the excitement downtown of our largest Road cycling event of the year. This year was no different as we looked to give the city of Boise a great show and hopefully earn some spots on the podium. Paul Warner, our top Cat 1 rider had a great showing in the Pro-1 field with a pack finish behind the stunning battle between United HealthCare and AltoVelo.

In the 1,2,3s Nick Lee, Ian Megale, Andrew Harris, Jackson Swanson and Gary Davis put on a great show with constant attacks while capturing multiple prems; despite the rain right before their race.

Unfortunately in the 4-5s the myth the man, the legend Chris Haskell got caught up with a lapper and took a solid spill, shown below, captured by his own gopro. Don't worry though, he has said he will be ready for Cyclocross season!

Baker City - This was one of the hottest years on record for the team. The heat combined with the 14 thousand feet of climbing over the four days was a true test of grit for the guys. In the 1-2s Justin Mayfield led both Paul Warner and Jackson Swanson through the grueling, steep Elkhorn Mountains. 

In the 3s Ian Megale and Eric Gregg gave quite an impressive performance.

Both earning points to upgrade them to cat 2 for next year! Ian placed 4th in the criterium and Eric was 2nd in the TT!

Ian doing throwing quite the bike throw

ON THE DIRT

Jug Mtn 9-5

Zach Powell teamed up with his good friend and long time local pro Josh Oppenheimer to dominate the mens duo field. The two were the only group of the day to complete 12 laps. Our own Lucy Collins made her debut to the mtb marathon scene as well. She finished third behind seasoned pros Amanda Carey and Jana Repulski. 

Lucy cruising through the mountains of McCall

Mtb Nationals

TJ and Zach were able to make the trek to Mammoth Mountain this year for Mtb Nationals. TJ had a great race in the Cat 1 40-44 age group placing 12th. Zach was competitive in his field as well despite a poor start.

As I mentioned, Fall is here, which means cyclocross is upon us. We hope to see out at the races with a cowbell and tasty beverage; as this is one of our favorite times of the year!

Thank you all for the support this year, we would not be the great team we are without the great sponsors we have!

All the best!

The LBC Board

Seven Cycles for the Long Haul

This from our friends at Seven Cycles, "We had an email from a photographer friend, based in Europe. It said, "Have been out shooting PBP (Paris-Brest-Paris) and was amazed at the number of Sevens I saw." Then we were researching recent posts about the New England Randonneurs' summer brevet series, looking at results and times, and it struck what a high percentage of the riders were on our bikes.   It seems everywhere we look at the longest, hardest rides the sport offers, our bikes are disproportionately represented. We hope it's because we can offer serious riders the exact blend of performance and comfort they're looking for, and that few, if any, production bikes provide the sorts of features and options that make big adventures so much easier. Whatever the case (like Seven riders are just a little crazier than the general cycling populace), it feels good that the harder the ride, the more likely the rider is to choose Seven."

Because Seven does a lot of custom bikes, and you don't tend to see them sitting on the sales floor, it might be easy to forget that they're some of the best bikes out there. Big adventure riders, we're here for ya.

This here...is quite a bike.

Yesterday (8/23/15) we had a very successful Giant Bike Demo at Camel's Back Park, with many riders getting out on multiple bikes. Thanks to "Giant Demo Driver" Brad Pastir and everyone who showed. 

The surprising revelation of the day: Most people who thought they wanted a 5.5" travel Trance Advanced, and then rode a Trance and a 6.3"-travel Reign in secession, came away saying, "Well, the Reign pedals just as well with more travel...it's overkill for here [in the Boise foothills], but that's the bike I want." And guess what? No one was missing 29" wheels. All day. 

To each their own, 29-inch wheels make a ton of sense to a lot of people and on a lot of terrain, but if you have yet to try out 27.5, we think you owe it to yourself. Luckily, both models will be part of our in-store demo fleet very soon.  

Absolutely DO NOT try to insult the
Justice League right now, Drunk Aquaman

As for the "Stories" part of this Stories-post, I don't have a picture of the guy, because when he arrived the queue was substantial and we were busy getting people out on bikes, but let me paint a picture for ya. Imagine it's about 8:30am on a smoky Sunday and the Giant truck is posted up at the end of 9th street; the backside of Camel's Back. As we're unloading bikes, a man stumbles out of the woods with a duffel bag. He's quite fashionable with some designer jeans, a button down shirt, and suit-style vest. Problem is, he's not fit, neither the shirt nor the vest are buttoned, and he's having trouble negotiating how to get over one of the least formidable wooden fences I've ever seen. 

It takes him a handful of minutes but eventually he makes it over to the demo area to start chattin us up about bikes. At least, I think that's what he though he was doing. We fielded a barrage of questions relating to what we were doing setting up shop near his hallowed pond in the first place....until a green cab pulled up. Don't know if this was pre-arranged or what because dude didn't have a cell phone. He throws his bag in the trunk, slaps his face to dust off his beard, asks us for a light [that we didn't have] and away he goes. Weirdest thing I've seen in a while, but "too weird to live, too rare to die," I guess.

The Liv bike demo is next week, Monday the 31st. Hope to get all the ladies out for that one. Call us at 208/336-3854 to reserve your bike ASAP. 

Mountain Bike World Cup DH - The last race of the year (almost) streams Saturday Morning

For those of you who like and follow World Cup DH mountain bike racing, Val di Sol will be streaming on Red Bull TV Saturday morning at 6:30 Mountain Time. This is the final stop on the World Cup circuit, the only other being the World Championships in Andorra in 2 weeks (World Champs is not technically a World Cup... so there's that).

There are tons of compelling stories playing out this year, as Josh Bryceland (AKA "Ratboy," "The Rat," or "Miami Bryce") came back to form to win a few weeks back, but maybe isn't exactly 100% after his crushing ankle injury at last year's Worlds. Luckily, the kid hasn't lost his accent (the best in the biz).

Meanwhile Greg Minnaar is perennially at the top despite the whole pesky "aging" thing (the man is a professor), both the Athertons have won here before (understatement of the century), devout-American Aaron Gwin is capable of winning on any weekend (pray for him), and then there's the new crop of youngsters hanging out at the bottom of the podium every week just waiting to punch through (these include Troy Brosnan who qualified first, and my favorite up-and-coming-Frenchie Remi Thirion, who does already have a World Cup win, so maybe he's not so up-and-coming anymore, but it doesn't really matter because he's out with injury).

Watch the course preview to get you pumped, and tune in tomorrow. Top women should be at about 7:15 and I'd say the top men go off at about 8:00.

It's not that early.

Two separate events coming up. Giant on Aug. 23rd and LIV on the 31st.

What goes around comes back around.

Maybe I'm just getting old, but I remember this. 

Be honest: it was a terrible bike. 

And now we have this. 

These are not at all the same bike. There is so much tech in the new Session 8 that didn't even exist in 1992, but you have to admit, there are similarities in terms of the look. Can you tell me is this faaaaiiir?

BC

Can't light a fire on the ground in the Sawtooths? Use this.

The Grilliput Duo seen above is here. Photos courtesy of John Sabala. 

Have a great weekend, every weekend. 

- BC