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Holiday Wishes

Orange-bike_medium It's the holiday time of year, you know that time when we write letters to Santa and the dreidel and ask for our hearts' desires. It's also almost the new year, and that means more bike racing. Really, could it just start already? I'm kind of afeared that Twitter is going to explode if there isn't some bike racing soon, actually.

Anyway, if you were to write to Santa or the dreidel or the Christmas bush or Poseidon or whatever holiday gift-bringing entity you like to write to, what cycling gifts for the coming year would you ask for?

Really, this needs more crayons. But you get the idea, right?

0 recs  |  162 comments

Comments

Thanks Jen, happy holidays.

My wish would be for round trip tickets to Brussels some time in early April…

As a consilation though, a soft tail 29er would be nice too..

Oooh, new bikes are always awesome.

Riding a carbon hardtail 29er at the moment and it’s good times for sure.

I don't even dream big (carbon or soft tail)...I got a chance to ride a low end Specialized 29er (my first time on a 29er) and I loved it...

Happy Holidays folks!

yeah

I like the 29er feel for a lot of stuff. There are a few places I don’t like it as much as my 26er, but they’re pretty cool.

so what the hell

is 29er and 26er?

mountain bikes

with either 29 inch or 26 inch wheels. 26 being the standard most people are used to, 29 the new hot thing in mountainbiking. all the big brands started selling some 29 models 2 or 3 years ago.

A 29er mountain bike

has bigger wheels. The numbers relate to the wheel size.

So, I have one of these on loan at the moment to ride.

The 26er is the more traditional mountain bike, that you’re used to seeing. I like it a bit better in rocky technical stuff than the 29er. And the handling is a little quicker with the small wheels. A light 29er, though, they’re pretty fun.

To add,

what they call 29" wheels on the MTB, are exactly the same size rims as 28" on the road bike. So it’s a cross between an MTB and a cyclocross bike.

ja

Although I would say in the U.S. context, the 29ers have more mountain bike characteristics than cross.

what width usually?
depends on conditions

I’m currently running 2.0" on the 29er I have. That’s how it came to me.

That this is actually true and we can get on with REAL cycling news.

Contador to be banned

Disregard (?)

The masthead is todays date, while the article is dated last January and is obviously not current once it’s read.

hee :D

I read it and was like, huh, why is the RFEC back in play? And why is Contador going to CAS? We’re already at CAS… But yes, the date. So not today.

I would wish

for the little, orange PdC logo to appear in my hot links toolbar next to “PdC” instead of the default MS IE bleh-ness.

IE WTF?
yes, you bring this onto yourself
I'm guessing I'm not the only one

Maybe it's just me

but I’d wish for arms before I’d wish for a flat stomach.
(Or maybe one’s conducive to the other…can’t shove groceries down your neck with no arms).

Ha ha, right

Arms are pretty useful for steering the bike, too :D

I'd wish for not Bart Simpson's haircut
Or

an eyebrow trimmer.

(shush, don't mention his unibrow)
or his all white kit
Arms,... typical!

Friggin Yanks!

How else can you enforce your worldview unless you have arms?
Exactly

I mean, can you picture Roosevelt shaking Chamberlain by the shoulders if he didn’t have arms?

Hitler was crafty

imposing his worldview using only one arm.
o/
……..\o \o \o \o \o

I think that's a new record for referencing Hitler in an armless sub-thread?
Hmmm

There was an old record for referencing Hitler in an armless sub-thread?
Now you guys are worrying me.

We keep records for everything.

We’re kind of like the Giro jerseys.

Definitely not Italian either without the arms...
i don't want much for next year

12 months of riding
11 road gears for shifting
10 mtb gears for (also) shifting
9 man french WC team
8 lululemon world cup victories
7 stages in colorado (in person)
6 days of track racing
5 exciting monuments
4 mountain top finishes (per GT)
3 french classics wins
2 (w)VDS wins
and a partridge in a pear tree

nice!

Campa man?

not really

i just needed something that started with 11. i hear shimano’s going to turn it up to 11 too. 10’s more than good enough for me. i’ll upgrade when they get to 13.

I misread # 3 as 3 french classic twins.

Couldn’t wait to see where that went.

Yup, Shimano will roll out 11 this next year.

Will you need to get a new chain/parts to accomodate this?

I was looking at Campy 11 Athena for my new Colnago, went with the Shimano in the end but may want to upgrade to a better set and 11sp.

contrarian piping in:

Exactly how do “better” and 11speed go together?

Sing it, sister!
'zactly...

my 2×10 Chorus from 2002 (oh the horrors.. it’s over 10 years old..) works splendidly, I’d never consider one more gear in the middle “better” really. SRAM seems to think 2×10 is fine as well, and I agree, so Rival went on my crosser. More is not always better. At what price is the 11th gear obtained anyway? Thinner chains? With more proprietary connections to wear out and be replaced?
If they were to pay me to ride it and provide the gear it’s great (but I’m no pro), but I would not be running out to “upgrade”.

2x9 Ultegra

And fucking proud of it.

Though I will switch to 2×10 next year cause it’s time for a new drive train.

You're lucky.

When I were a lad, 10-speed bike meant 5 at the back, 2 at the front.
But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor.

Did you eat poison 3 times a day and sleep in a hole in the road?

Cause that’s what we did, and we loved it.

We used to dream of living in hole in the road
Wishes are free, right?

Ponies!

andy, is that you?
Ooooh, a new mountain bike

Saving for this but wouldn’t mind an upgrade…

Also, tubulars for racing cross. Make that 4 sets – two with intermediate tread, 2 with mud tires.

And a spare cross bike.

Also, more watts.

Me

I’d settle for a good 25mm road tubular. Like, yesterday.

conti sprinter gatorskin: hit up H2
Pave Evo CG's

24’s are close enough, right?

If you can stand green tires . . .
Vittorias run narrow

So I bet they’re more like 23s…

MMmmmmmm, 25mm tubulars.

I’ll swap out spare cross bike for that. I swear, when I have tubie rims, I will race on 25s.

conti competitions also made in 25
and are awesome.
I'd love my PdC Kit to arrive in time for a holiday trainer session (hopefully high probability).

Maybe a nice 10C Christmas Day so I can finally ride my new bike outside (low probability).

And for good measure, a Garmin GPS bike computer (no chance).

Happy holidays to all from the Great White North. koo oo koo koo koo oo koo koo!

To break 6:45 up Boxhill

And to figure out how to shave the hair on my knee caps without cutting myself

Use your wife's razor
& bend your knees
And stretch again for back of the knee..
fortunately I don't really have hair

on the back of my knee ;-)

That is the toughest place to get though, Ted's dead on.
Aaah so simple...!!!

a trip around the world to see every single race I wish for and have enough time to ride my bicycle around those places with people from PdC…!!!

I just want some Barbies.

And new bike shoes.

Oh, and decent results for my favorite riders. That’s not too much to ask, is it?

No, I don't think so at all.

Hey Winter Festival Fairy thingy! Bring more Barbies! XOXOXO.

I just want some more Barbie stories!

And a chapter of Cabin Boy Jens!

2012 Wish List: An injury and crash free world peloton

Albertina's gonna be pissed

when she finds out you want to ban euskatel from the peloton.

OK,

I’ll just campaign for softer roads

+10000000! Perfect wish!
Can I ask for

fewer temper tantrums and lame arguments on Twitter?

Really, people, some of these things should really be settled in private, no?

What did I miss?!
Quite.

I can’t be doing with endless fending & proving these days. Unfollow! Unfollow! Unfollow!

Merry Christmas! ;-)

Mute works well, too :D
yes, I'm too harsh ;-)
I try to be optimistic

like, maybe this is a passing phase? So, mute instead of unfollow :D

ah, inevitably I'll re-follow once the racing starts... :-)
lol, yeah

I think there will be less lameness once there is bike racing. At lesat, I hope so.

can I ask for more tantrums?

Or will that undo your wish?

to name a few...

A better showing in VDS
that my new zealand bike trip comes to fruition –
the full week off for the USAPCC
more dancing Leenoos pics

and safe riding for each and every one of us

Ooo, NZ sounds rather fun

I hear that it’s mid summer right now.

A few weeks in February is the plan

my company offers a 1 month paid sabbatical for every 5 years of service to recharge. I somehow made it and plan to take full advantage.

shut up yeehoo
and I see they give you the shortest month.

evil corporate oppressors

Crazy talk

February is one of the longest months. Not as long as September, but a lot longer than May.

Nah, it's actually 20 consecutive work days off, just needs to be taken w/in a year of your 5 yr anniversary

But definitely one of the more awesome perks I’ve been afforded in my workflife.

Paid sabbatical?!

Many do unpaid, but paid is awesome!

New Zealand... so jealous.

What’s your route?

South Island is the plan for riding

I’ll be part of a tour group – so I’ll go where they tell me to go and I’ll like it. : )

I will get a few days on the north island visiting friends of mine & my sister. I’ve never been, so do you have any must-see’s?

If you're there between 22 and 26th

there’s this little race …that might benefit from a bit of on the spot reporting

A Garmin Edge 500!

Its the only thing I actually wanted that was remotely close to the Christmas budget. This one will happen. Don’t tell the Wife I know ’cause like its supposed to be a surprise and stuff.

Stuff I am not going to get but would like;

More time to ride (has to wait till all my kids are in full time school September 2014)

A new road bike. Waiting till I have more time to ride. See above.

A Mountain within 40 Km of my house. (If you can figure this one out without moving my house your talents are wasted on this kind of stuff)

I figured this out long ago

just put all the garbage in one place. For the whole town. Soon you’ll have a mountain.

we have such a bump, really a bunny hill, people actually pay to slide down it for 5-10 seconds.

What I really want is something with 6-10 kM of like 7-9%. Oh and Granite would be nice. however if you can convince all the NIMBY people to get on board and build the thing, and finish it with Dirt eventually, I promise to ride it.

The Dutch beat you to that idea

with the VAMberg and they even race bikes over it for the Ronde van Drenthe

I'd quite like the motivation to sort out my decrepit bike & start riding it a bit again.

& hate it enough to justify starting to save for a decent one…

Thanks Jen for all the hard work and entertainment this year. I've been doing a bit of bike shopping of a different kind and was going to do a fanpost, but maybe here is better.r

Did any of you realise that many aid agencies have gifts that are sent to your friend…like buying a goat or a pig or friut trees or educating a girl. They also have bikes!
http://www.charitygifts.com.au/
For instance, it costs $120.00 for a bike for a birth attendant through CARE Australia. (My manic bike riding friend is getting that.) Anyway, I have decided that where people appear to have everything, then gifts through an aid organisation is a good thing.

PS.The site I've pasted above is not just for Australian aid organisations. It includes things like Oxfam and UNICEF.
thanks, seahorse
I am fairly conservative person.

So I wish for no changes at least in PdC
I wish to see all my old PdC friends in the Café every day! Don’t disappear folks, please!
Every one of you bringing something unique to this site.
Best wishes to everyone!

In Soviet Russia

you change time?

Ah that's so sweet.

Stopped me from posting my big greedy list of things to Santa (still gonna mail it though). Happy Holidays and best wishes to you and everyone as well.

Thank you!

And nothing wrong with greedy list to Santa! I have one myself.
And Sminer, from all of the people here on PdC, we must of be his favorites! Cause you know, He ( Santa ) build like sprinter, not like climber. :)

i wish for

good health and tons of riding

I've already had the best Chanukah present I could ever wish for...

…that being the Not Guilty verdict I got after a unanimous jury decision in court yesterday and which means I’m not going to prison for a year. However, I’d also quite like an Orbea Orca, enough money to set up my own women’s team and pay them a decent wage, a campervan so I can follow the Grand Tours next year and for Marianne Vos to win the 2012 World Road Race Championship. I reckon one of those is much more likely that the others.

According to Don King, the two greatest words in the english language are

“Not Guilty”

Congrats.

I agree with him 100%.
Most intriguing reponse so far...
the improbable one being the Vos win?

(and what’s the standard form of congratulations in the circumstances?)

I'd just like another contract for my company for May-December 2012.

That way I can do everything else I want:
- new Colnago bike, ordered
- Garmin computer things, ordered
- trip to Australia (Perth-Melbourne-Sydney) then NZ (Auckland and tour North Island) then Fiji (or maybe Cook Islands), flights getting sorted this wknd.
- back in time to go to Belgium, Flanders week, wife permitting (and I want to do a viewing at that farm)
- potential Sept trip to Dallas to watch the Horned Frogs, followed by my mate and I celebrating our 30ths in Vegas.

I am being needlessly greedy in 2012 but I’ve earned it the last few years.

And I hope some riders I like get good results in 2012 and those injured in 2011 make full recoveries.

Seriously, skip the North Island and focus on the South Island.

It has the better beer, wine, mountains, climate and people. Just sayin’.

(also, that’s awesome!)

NZ is kind of a silly afterthought in our plans, which is terrible

for such a place. But we weren’t originally going there, it’s just got better flight connections for us to the South Pacific islands. There’s a chance of us going to Nauru and can only go via Auckland, so need to get there first.
Hire a campervan, 5 days up to the North (I know someone from Whangerei who’s given me a few ideas)., then back to the airport.
I really hate that we’re doing a whistlestop tour of the other side of the world, to places that we could easily spend a month in each. But my wife is a nurse and can’t be away long, so a few days here and there is better than none at all.

Whoa, New Zealand appears to be a popular destination for 2012

My sis & her hubbie did the campervan experience this year and had a blast – have fun and w/ all the rest of your travels you have lined up too!

Fair enough

Don’t get me wrong, the North Island’s good. It’s just that the South is better. ;)

I’m sure you’ll have an awesome trip anyway.

For example

They have all this.

wow those guys are good!

talk funny though

True, they do talk weird.

But it’s easy to ignore them in favour of the scenery. The one thing that video failed to do is adequately capture how beautiful that part of the world is in summer.

On what island do they have hobbits and zombies?
Hobbits are the south.

Aren’t Zombies from Philly?

Ha! It is Hoboes from Philly, not Zombies.

Nice plans! Have lots of fun!

Peter Jackson made a zombie film

Rather amusing, with a lot of blood.

Yeah that was the Nth Island

shot around Wellington. It was called Brain Dead down here, think it had a different title for US release. He also made a hilarious alien invasion one called Bad Taste.

The story goes that when Bernard Hill got the part of Theoden he rented those two movies and watched them. He then called Peter Jackson and said “I’ve just finished watching a couple of your early movies.” Peter’s immediate reply was an aghast, “Oh no. You didn’t!”

No! I love the South Island, but the Bay of Islands is gorgeous too!
fiji is awesome
Dear Santa, I've so so well behaved this year, so please bring me:

an Orbea Orca (white, 50cm), a pet marmotte, that white baserri with the red roof half way up the Urkiola, Zdenek Stybar, a baby penguin, a Ridley X-Night, a pressure washer, a mechanic, Benat Intxausti, a cross season free of twingey knee, mud in January, a pricey Garmin, air tickets/press passes to every pelota championship final, and all the Leffes I am owed by tgsgirl.

good luck on that last one.
ain't gonna happen
I'm coming to collect them next week as you well know. I've hired a van to transport them home.
You don't think

that some of the softer stuff in there might get squashed, bent, buckled and broken in all sorts of ways if Santa tries to stuff all that lot in one sack. Although if Zdenek and Benat could somehow be bred you’d get a litter of massive scrabble scores.

well played
if Zdenek and Benat could somehow be bred you’d get a litter of massive scrabble scores
Person, formerly known as tgsgirl.

Changed her PdC name on ioweleffetonoonegirl! :)

I see you want a Garmin...!???

You want to join us for the Strava contest…!!! Let me see if Santa accept payments…. From England.

My Mother says she will buy me one! She'll give me the money and I'll order it as she has no idea how ;)

I don’t know which model to get though…what do people recommend?!

Have a look at this thread – where we discuss GPS options.

http://www.podiumcafe.com/2011/10/16/2494645/gps-units

i love my 500

the 200 might be sufficient though, depending on what you want to use it for.

remember

that money is no object here

Was thinking of the 500...
hat one a few months back...

Very pleased with it…. Check ebay, I got a refurbished one and here no complains…. I paid for the bundle(HR, cadence sensor) 260…Us dollars.

Getting a 500 myself as the Heart rate and speed/Cadence are add-ons that I want. The 200 seems Ok

if you want a stripped down non expandable computer. I hope mine will grow with me. Oh as well the 500 seems to gets raves. I personally love the DCrainmaker. His reviews are exactly what I want in product reviews. Thourough and done with enthusiasm. Also has how toos and tips for using your products.

And after that you join us in Strava..?

Next year we are going to be Top 10 if we keep adding folks..!
Yeehoo, willj, Jered healthy OMG…!

I wish for

more wheel fights. Who didn’t win that day?

Oh that was a great day. Though I am guessing all the Photogs that were off shooting the winnar or the bigs kinda lost that day.
Ha...! I knew it..!

I could see at least 2 persons that want a GPS unit for the holidays…. New members for the 2012 season in Strava..!!!!

What I want for 2012

Lots of snow in January – February so I can use my skis, and a fast snow melt and clean streets by early April
To get back to my 2010 form (bah nagging injuries!)
To try cyclocross someday (those Namur photos and videos were crazy)
A major Canadian (or Québec) cycling win
More cycling on TV (please local station, keep your promises!)
Philippe Gilbert to cost 1 VDS point
More Adventures of Barbie Barbie
More Crayons
To meet more PdC people (Québec in September is beautiful, people!)
Stanley Cup in Montréal A deep run in the playoffs Make the playoffs A new coach Well, might as well change the whole team

A major Canadian (or Québec) cycling win

this implies that Québec is not part of Canada? :)

Good luck on the injury front.

No sympathy for a hab fan (said the Leafs fan).

Hey I would ask for a Canadian/Ontario win.

But does Ontario actually have a top cyclist at the moment?

I would love to see a Qubecois win! (Not a separatist or French speaking.)

Even the Guy at Tims spoke English to me when I tried to order a cofee at the drive through(using my horrid rudimentary excuse for French). Always surprised at the warmth and acceptance of Quebecois to my poor command of their language. Oh and how many Quebecois speak english and how well they do. Although I guess that my constant surprise speaks more to my expectations and limitations, oh well, C’est la Vie.

Ok, if we're starting on other sports, I'll have:

-A win for Aritz Lasa and Aitor Zubieta in the pelota pairs championships
-Athletic Bilbao top of La Liga
-Jason Lamy Chappuis winning the Nordic combined world cup, with wins along the way for various other favourite dudes

sometimes I feel the whole language stories are exaggerated

By personal experience, I find that when people simply try a little, it’s seen as a mark of respect, it’s appreciated and everybody is happy. But throw in the media and the politicians who are more than happy to stir the pot and make big stories out of little things in this very sensitive matter (and we had a great example this week), tempers flare, emotions run high and everything suddenly seems so much more critical and complicated…

As for Ontario, Michael Barry comes to mind
well, I always root for the home guy...

…and the closest guys I can relate to are from Québec. Tuft and Hesjedal are from BC, which is almost as far as Europe. And I just like Rollin, Veilleux, Boivin and Gilbert (the other one).

The injury (minor but irritating) seems to be gone now.

But sorry, I can’t even think about liking the Leafs. Impossible. The only thing worse than the Bruins winning is Toronto winning!

Go Habs Go.

Also…

(Québec in September is beautiful, people!)

It really, really is.

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