Art of The Bike Wash with Petar Tomich

One of the major things Pedro's was doing out at Cyclocross Nationals in Bend, Oregon was washing bikes, lots of bikes. Muddy, muddy bikes. Hundreds upon hundreds of them. All day. In the video below, Petar Tomich talks us through a standard "triage bike wash." He's dressed like an Alaskan crab fisherman and like a crab fisherman, he is soaking wet, cold, and suffering, but still cranking away.

Pedro's was there for everyone, all the riders, pro and amateur alike. Did freshly re-crowned National Champ Katie "Straight Outta" Compton get VIP treatment? Ya, maybe a little bit. But she earned it.

Adam Myerson was shocked that Pedro's President Matt Simpson and VP Matt Bracken were out there washing bikes all day.

Thanks Adam, it's our pleasure, any time dude.

Best of Bunnyhopping The Barriers at Cyclocross Nationals

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It might not always be the fastest way over the barriers and it's great way to end your race in a flash of pain and embarrassment, but there is just no denying how awesome bunny hopping the barriers is. Even Jeremy Powers, who was sitting solidly in third place at Cyclocross Nationals, chose to hop the barriers nearly every lap. He insisted on hopping rather than dismounting even though he was pretty much hitting the barriers sideways by the end, and just as close to knocking them over as anything. He could have easily lost his podium spot, but he knew he wasn't going to win, so he opted to entertain the fans rather than simply ride home safely.

The guy is aces in our book.

The other guys in the video are no schlubs either. They may have been well off the back of the race, but they gained valuable style points by cleanly roosting over the barriers consistently.

Those guys are all aces in our book too. It's a big book. It's called "The Big Book of People Who Pedro's Thinks Are Aces."

Pink & White Chris King/Pedro's Cielo Unveiled in Bend, Oregon

In addition to the pink and white skin suits, Pedro's unveiled a very special bike out at Cyclocross Nationals in Bend, Oregon — a pink and white Chris King Cielo.


The bike made an appearance at the Keep A Breast Foundation "Breast of Bend" fundraiser at the Midtown Ballroom in Bend on the Friday before Nationals.


The above stickers were available at the party. In the context of a discussion about breast cancer they are totally inoffensive, awesome even, but put it next to this bumper sticker:


on your pick up truck and it might take on an entirely different connotation.


The bike made a big splash at the Breast of Bend party, but it made its debut appearance at the Sunnyside Sports Pedro's/Lazer Helmets party the night before. Pedro's VP and top-notch wrench, Matty "Release The" Bracken, was under a bit of pressure as he tried to get the bike runway-ready before party time.


Matty B. went on a mad scavenger hunt for white housing, but had to settle for black. Still not too bad looking, eh?

The La Cumbre Peak, engraved brass head tube badge.

The bike is also adorned with all pink Chris King components, from the headset...

to the rear hub...


all the way back up to the front hub.

These are some quick "from the hip" shots, check back soon for some more artfully done (read: less horribly-bad) photos.

This dude was down with the pink theme.

Pedro's Debuts Womens Cancer Awarenes Kit At Cross Nationals

Of course Pedro's decides to debut their pink and white kit at the only truly muddy cross race of the year: Cross Nationals in Bend, Oregon. After David Wilcox (above) rode the time trial to determine his seeding for the Masters 30+ race, he was pretty sure the mud-spattered kit would never recover. "So what, are those like one time use kits?" was the line the Pedro's Grassroots Team riders heard over and over again, all weekend long. But with some soaking in a bucket of diluted Green Fizz, the kits came back to life.

How bad was the mud?


The filthy slurry of Bend mud permeated the skin suit and cascaded its way down to the chamois. "It was technical, but I wasn't THAT scared." said U23 rider Josh Lehmann. You do the math.

Jeff Bramhall, Pedro's Operations Manager got out there to play in the mud too.

The Wilcox pre-mud bath, posing in front of the Pedro's neutral bike wash.

Tim Johnson was out pre-riding with a fender. Apparently a pro way to avoid the embarrassing skid-mark up the backside thing. A man once said that the mud-stripe is to winter riding what tan lines are to summer riding. That man was an idiot.

An Oregon CX fan unwittingly gets with the Pedro's program.

Pinning your bro's number on...a big part of Cross. Nothing creates a bond between two people like stabbing each other repeatedly with safety pins.


Adam Myerson is either bugging Dave about getting hooked up with a white Pedro's hat, or saying "You look awesome. I have an amazing life, but I would trade places with you right now at the drop of a hat, and speaking of hats..."


Photos of the matching Cielo bikes coming soon...

GET IN THE VAN! Race Across The Ground To CX Natz Episode 4

In episode 4 of GET IN THE VAN! Race Across The Ground To CX Natz the team really starts unraveling. They can't decide where to eat, they nearly run out of gas somewhere in Idaho, and Chandler's rank-ass continues to torment David and Thom.
a
Episode 5 coming soon...

More CX Natz Footage With Jeff Bramhall

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Jeff Bramhall is Operations Manager for Pedro's, he's also a cyclocross racer. He donned the new white and pink Pedro's kit and went head to head with the mud-slicked, wind-swept, CX Nationals course in Bend, Oregon, racing in the Masters 30+ category. He went down in the first minute of the race, getting completely turned around (as you can see on the helmet-cam footage), wound up dead last, but rallied to beat a bunch of dudes.

Of course the helmet-cam damn near killed the guy, getting hung up on a low-hanging tree on the run/ride-up (two angles of that in the footage).

GET IN THE VAN! Episode 4 is still in the works...

If you didn't catch the other three episodes of GET IN THE VAN! Race Across The Ground To CX Nats, they are right here for your viewing enjoyment:

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

CX Nats Masters 30+ The Wilcox Mix

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At this very moment GET IN THE VAN! Race Across The Ground To CX Natz Episode 4 is in post-production. What we have to offer you as an interim entertainment measure is the above vid of the Masters 30+ race from Saturday. That race was really a hell of a lot nastier than the Elite Nationals the next day, on Sunday — windier, wetter, gnarlier. It's a combo of Contour HD helmet cam (which was on the head of David Wilcox) and some footage shot with a Flip Mino. It kind of captures how insane it was out there, kind of.

We've got a lot more vids in the works, check back soon.

U23 Video From CX Nats And An Update From The Van

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The Pedro's van left Bend, Oregon at 2:40 Monday afternoon. It is now parked in Lincoln, Nebraska about 24 hours later. It has not stopped...at all. OK, it stopped for about an hour in Meridian Idaho, just outside Boise, due to a slow leak in the rear tire. Some Fix-A-Flat was pumped into the nearly bottoming out tire and the van returned to the road. The GET IN THE VAN TEAM was a bit nervous, having nearly run out of gas on this very stretch of road on the way out to Bend, just days before. Despite a couple preemptive topping offs of the tank, history nearly repeated itself. The expanse between Twin Falls, Idaho and Ogden, Utah is just that desolate in the wee hours of the night. Of course the wee hours in those parts start at about 9PM.

The van really did run out of gas on its way to Cross Nationals in Bend, just outside Burns, Oregon, like 10 miles outside Burns, Oregon. It was 4AM, it was 11°, and there was no shoulder to pull off onto. The GITV Team went straight into Survivor Man mode: they busted out the Powerbook and watched Dod Sno while awaiting rescue:

A great film to watch while stranded on a deserted road, at night, in the snow.

Despite the 12 hours on, driving/6 hours off, sort of sleeping shifts, the now, two-man-team is employing, there has been some opportunity to catch up on some video editing. The video at the top of the post incorporates Pedro's Grassroots rider, Josh Lehmann's bar-cam footage with some HD footage taken with a Flip Mino while he was on course. Toward the end of the race Josh pitted his bike, so there's some great pit/bike wash footage thrown in as well.

Time to hit the road again, check back soon for further reports from the road. Unless, of course, the Nazi-Zombies get us before we can get to another internet cafe.

Puddle Fight At CX Nationals: Gumby Vs. "Unicorns Are Real" Man

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This video answers the age-old question: Who would win in a fight — Gumby or a man in a Mexican Wrestler Mask, wearing a Speedo, with "Unicorns Are Real" written in Sharpie on his back?

Todd Wells' win at Cyclocross Nationals was truly just a freakish sideshow to the real main event: Gumby Vs. "Unicorns Are Real" Man. The arena was a muddy hillside and a murky puddle. Gumby brought his A-Game and spanked "Unicorns Are Real" Man, badly, before unmasking him in front of thousands of screaming Mascot-Fight fans. When the show was over, lacking something better to watch, the fans turned their attention to a bunch of skinny men riding around in circles in the mud.

Heckling, Ripping Your Teammates Head's Off And The Pros Picks For Natz

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Above: Tim, Jeremy, Georgia, and Amy discuss the dynamic they have with their teammates during a race. Johnson and Powers talk a little bit about their epic battle at the last round of the USGP in Portland.

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Above: Johnson, Powers, Gould, Bruno-Roy, Antonneau, and Dombroski give their picks for the mens and womens races at Cyclocross Nationals on Sunday.

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Above: Johnson, Powers, and Gould discuss hecklers and heckling. Johnson manages to foment a war between Belgium and the United States.

Pedro's/Lazer Helmets Party At Sunnyside Sports

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Friday night before Cyclocross Nationals, the guys from Pedro's and Lazer Helmets swung a little party at Sunnyside Sports in Bend, Oregon. Pro riders, Tim Johnson, Jeremy Powers, Jamey Driscoll, Kaitlin Antonneau, Georgia Gould, Amy Dombroski, and Mo Bruno-Roy were there to share stories with the fans. Things got pretty goofy at a couple points during the evening and some big laughs were had.

In the above video Johnson and Powers discuss how they got into 'cross. In the video below several of the riders talk about their favorite courses and share their thoughts on the 2010 Nationals course in Bend.

There's more where these came from, so come back soon!

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GET IN THE VAN! Race Across The Ground Ground To CX Natz Episode 3

The bar is lowered on acceptable humor like it's a limbo competition and the team experiments with deadly driving games.

Pedro's GET IN THE VAN! Race Across The Ground Nationals Epsiode 2

Episode 2 in the series. Lots of focus on the way the van smells and why.

Pedro's: Vanishing Point, The Real Life Musical Day Two - Snow Devils And Red Bull

Differentiating between day one and day two of the Pedro's GET IN THE VAN! Race Across The Ground To CX Natz Cannonball Run might prove difficult. You see, day one never really ended, it just kind of began toward the end of day one some time. There was no defining moment that shouted "this is day two!"

The snow made the overnight driving shifts grueling, stressful, eye-tearing affairs. CycloWhat? was the first to step up behind the wheel, and he was the first to fall.

Big Bikes followed, getting accustomed to the unfamiliar Volkswagen Eurovan while fighting high winds and steering through frozen slush, while singing along to Human League.

The Wilcox's shift wouldn't start until Tuesday AM, about 17 hours into the trip, somewhere in Indiana. All the driving prior to sunrise blurred into a nightmarish composite image

of 18-wheeler taillights, ruts in the snow, and semi-trucks with triple trailers blowing by like the Pedro's van was a Geo Metro loaded with bench vises.

Ohio proved a formidable foe, its nearly identical service plazas giving the appearance of total lack of progress. But they all had Starbucks. The Ohio taketh awayeth, and The Ohio-eth give-o-eth.

At some point Big Bikes became a slave to bodily functions, lapsing in and out of sleep, waking up only to urinate or defecate, mostly not in the van. Around eleven in the morning, he got dumped onto the floor by a sudden slamming on of the van's brakes, accompanied by panicked screaming. He woke up looking like a discombobulated, stoned 15-year-old, wondering what the hell at happened. He had been pranked by his cohorts. Big Bikes may have mumbled something about his revenge prank relating to falling asleep at the wheel at 3AM, and crashing the van into a bridge abutment, killing all aboard in a flaming wreck.

The reality television crew charged with documenting the Pedro's Race Across The Ground to CX Nationals has the daunting task of trying to edit anything CycloWhat? says into something that isn't a just string of F-bombs punctuated with descriptions of various forms of biological waste.

At a Subway in Illinois, the racing team of racers was accosted by a farm worker dressed in a mud-splattered jump suit that would have easily fit a Plains Buffalo. He turned and asked them, through his brilliantly white dentures, which stood in stark contrast to his dirt-encrusted overalls, "Where you headed with all them bikes?" "Bend, Oregon" they replied in harmonic unison. "I hope yer getting' paid for it" he said. "No sir." "What, is Obama paying' for it?" Uh…no." "Well I bet you f—ers voted for him," (Nervous laughter) "You ain't denying' it!"

As this message reaches you, the Pedro's Boogie Van Boys are approaching Lincoln, Nebraska where they will enjoy their first true stop of the trip, after 1572 miles of nearly non-stop travel. Pizza will be eaten, beer will be imbibed, and a few precious hours of sleep will be had, hopefully, for their sake.

Pedro's GETINTHEVAN! Cannonball Run, Death Race 2000 to CX Natz Day One

The Pedro's GETINTHEVAN! racing team didn't start their THREE THOUSAND MILE race across the ground to Cyclocross Nationals until about 2:30 Monday afternoon. Cyclowhat? spent the morning returning errant scaffolding to angry Wilochoskis at great risk to his personal safety. The Wilcox was diverted for hours as he attempted to circumvent
Memorial Drive and its low-bike-wrecking--bridges, going against the advice of his flight computer, which protested, saying "I'm sorry Dave…but I can't do that. I'm scared Dave." And Big Bikes made great use of his time, watching The Cannonball Run and Tweeting about not making great use of his time.

Before they hit the road, Big Bikes took a pee.


When the racing team of racers finally did come together, they made up for their severe time deficit by immediately springing to action — going to Whole Foods to get lunch and assorted snacks.

Big Bikes took a pee.

Shortly after that, a detour was made to find a Bank of America for Cyclowhat? He made up for the detour by getting lost on the way back to the highway, and then made his racer teammates stop at Starbucks.

And Big Bikes took another pee.


After what seemed like just a few minutes, the Pedro's van veered off the highway again, this time for Cyclowhat? to pee. A stop at Dunkin Donuts was made. (And Big Bikes took yet another pee for good measure).
After putting gas in the van, it was discovered that the driver's side door was no longer functioning in a door-like capacity. Cyclowhat? went all drunk viking on it, slamming it repeatedly to no avail.
Luckily The Wilcox intervened before irreparable damage was done, freeing up the latch mechanism with a Pedro's multi-tool just as the icy wind began to howl and the snow began to fall.
Utilizing the GPS system, the racing team of racers tried to re-locate the highway, but found themselves circling a Home Depot parking lot for several minutes until they threw a hat over the GPS,
fell back on their ninja-Jedi-Sardaukar training, and located the highway.

Before Cyclowhat? had time to rip another suffocating fart, Big Bikes was requesting another pee stop.

By this point in the journey the Pedro's race across the ground to CX Nationals teammates were beginning to get to know each other. Much to the horror of his car-mates, Cyclowhat? had revealed himself as
a fan of Mannheim Steamroller. Big Bikes had emerged as the member of the group with the bladder most similar in capacity to that of a marmoset monkey with diverticulitis. And The Wilcox had manifested his loathsome tendency to share large quantities of peanut M & M's with his teammates. A true cretin, that Wilcox.


As this dispatch from the Pedro's van comes to a close, the snow is beginning to cake on the highway and Big Bikes is holding his hand up, bouncing up and down like a nerdy 3rd grader who knows the answer to the teacher's question, and requesting another pee stop.

At this rate, the GETINTHEVAN! team will be in Bend, Oregon by the time the clean up crew is pulling the course tape on Sunday.

Bay State Cyclocross Video With Heckling Outtakes

Bay State Cyclocross 2010 Pedro's & Friends from Pedro's on Vimeo.

The Pedro's Grassroots crew was well-represented at Bay State Cyclocross in Sterling, MA last weekend. Dylan, Josh, David, Rebecca, and Jeff were all out there, sliding around on the incredibly slick and technical course, having a great time.

Pedro's sponsored athlete, Jeremy "J-POw" Powers was also out there hopping the barriers and generally kicking everyone else's asses. Some of the guys in the back of the elite race were of the opinion that hopping the barriers at Sterling was an impossibility due to the tricky approach...good thing there is substantial video-type evidence, from several exciting angles, to refute that claim.

The vid is in HD, which is nice, but uploading HD vids to Vimeo apparently takes hours, like FIVE HOURS, which is not nice. Five hours is a whole lot of time. Time enough to say, absentmindedly close your laptop and disrupt the upload when it's 57% complete, or say, leave your laptop unplugged and go out for a mountain bike ride, only to come back to find that the battery had gone dead, again disrupting the upload. But those are merely hypothetical situations. Nobody would really be dumb enough to do those things. Nobody.

GET IN THE VAN! Pedro's Cross Natz Cannonball Run Wants YOU!

Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention. I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story. I need all of you, to stop what you're doing and listen.

CANNONBALL RUN!

The freshly wrapped, non-flower-power Pedro's van is departing for Cross Nationals in Bend, Oregon THIS COMING MONDAY (that would the 6th). As things stand, the two inhabitants of the van are David "The Wilcox" Wilcox and Thom "Big Bikes" Parsons. But here's the crazy part:

We're looking for a third person.

It's not a bad deal really. Gas is paid for and you won't have to deal with all the B.S. and expense associated with flying your bike and all your gear out to Bend. The van is a VW Eurovan, so it has a bed to crash out on when it's not your turn to drive. Of course we will be stopping along the way...we don't know where yet. (Hey, we've got van, we didn't say anything about a plan.) We'll probably, I say probably be coming back the following Thursday. Unless David hijacks the van and makes us go to Belinky Junkyard Cross in Albany.

We intend to get to Bend some time Thursday, in time for The Pedro's/Lazer Helmets party at Sunnyside Sports. That party is gonna be SICK. J-Pow! will be there, as will Tim Johnson, Jamey Driscoll, Georgia Gould, Amy Dombrowski, Mo Bruno-Roy, Dylan McNicholas, and the Pedro's Grassroots team. There will be music by Wild Rye, an athlete and mechanic Q & A, food, drinks, and a Wii Dance-Off pitting the fans against the Pros.

If J-Pow has to dance to anything but techno; he is screwed. "This song is NOT mean!"

And speaking of pitting, the Pedro's crew will be offering Pit and Citizens bike washes all week long. Look for the yellow and black aprons. Also look for Pedro's down at Thump Coffee, where we'll be handing out free coffee to 30 lucky folks a day. Thump is also the site of the Cileo/Pedro's sculpture, which hopefully doesn't involve ants crawling on a cross...er, bike.

How Do I Get To Get In The Van?!?

Easy. Just post to the Pedro's Facebook page and tell us why you should be the third man/woman on the Pedros' Cannonball Run mission. If there are enough nutters out there who actually want to GET IN THE VAN! with The Wilcox and The Big Bikes then we'll figure out some way to narrow it down. I always find cage-fighting matches to be a good way to narrow things down.

It's going to be a great time, and oh ya, the whole thing is going to be documented and featured here, throughout Nationals weekend on the new and very exciting Pedro's Bike Care Blog. So many crazy things are going to be happening here, I could start to tell you, but I might get so worked up that I'd have to take a rhinoceros tranquilizer to calm back down. Just wait, it's gonna be good.