Racing, artwork, triathlon, or family ride–events shift into high gear for August, and stay amped through September in Colorado.    Criterium sells the commemorative jerseys for the Pro Cycling Challenge, rents road bikes for long-distance events, participates as a rest stop for many events, sponsors several, and best of all–we will get your bike ready for the starting line.  As always, Peak Region Cyclist keeps the most complete list of cycling events.  Here is a sample list:

Ride for Heroes:   a non-competitive ride to raise funds for veterans, police, and firefighter charities; September 10th; sponsored by Chick-Fil-A;  PatriotsFestival.com

Assault on the Peak, August 28th  ridepikespeak.com

MOVIE!     ‘Bicycle Dreams’ at StarGazers 7 p.m. August 27th  imathlete.com/events/bicycledreams

Roll Bike Art Opening, Friday August 26th, 5-8 p.m., 515 Manitou Ave.

US Pro Cycling Challenge Prologue, August 22;  USAPROCYCLINGCHALLENGE.COM 5 miles on Colorado Avenue

Kids on Bikes Festival, Sunday, August 21st;  kidsonbikes.net

The Kids on Bikes Festival is the premier family bike event in Colorado Springs, and this year we’ve been selected as one of the events to help jumpstart the USA Pro Cycling Challenge.  It all happens at America the Beautiful Park on August 21^st from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. There will tons of fun activities going on throughout the day for all ages including: live music, bike decorating, a kid’s bike safety rodeo, bike art projects, bmx demos, carnival games, crazy bike races, bounce houses, face painting, and more!  The Kids Bike Parade will start at 1:00 pm with various distance bike rides starting at 1:30 pm along the trail system.  Cost for the ride is $15 an individual or $50 for the entire family.

Bring your family. Bring your bikes. You’ll have a great time and help Kids on Bikes bring joy one bike at a time.  Visit www.kidsonbikes.net/2011/03/25/kids-on-bikes-festival/ for additional information and to register for the ride!

Fundraiser ride – Monarch Crest Crank – August 20 and 21st to prevent domestic violence

Copper Triangle Road Ride, August 5&6  – late registration available!  CopperTriangle.com

It’s a great time to get a new mountain bike with features beyond your wildest dreams, providing that you prefer a traditional 26″ wheel full suspension.    Some reasons might be:  steep descents, tricky stair-steps, control in skree, or a short inseam length.   If any of these conditions apply to your ride, we have carbon Epics and a carbon Enduro in large sizes, and a carbon Epic in medium.  The Epics are Expert level bikes from ‘09 and ‘10; the Enduro is S-Works,  Brains abound, and drive trains and forks are top quality.  It is unusual to save $1500 on a mountain bike, but here they are…

Don’t wait for fall to pursue these close-outs!  The 2012 model year begins in August, so instead of New Year’s, our deals arrive in time for Colorado Day the first week of August.

Once again, folks who don’t speak very good French have swept the Tour de France.   Cadel Evans, an Aussie riding a Swiss bike stamped his authority on the individual time trial to win the 21-day event.  Go to bmc-racing.com for event footage, or come in to Criterium to ride a BMC Racing Machine.

Evans gave a clinic on fast mountain descents during the Tour, using skills developed as a two-time Mountain Bike World Champion.  Incidentally, BMC also makes a fantastic series of full suspension mountain bikes, which you can also test ride at Criterium.

With the beginning of the Tour de France July 3rd, the summer brings around the competitor in many everyday cyclists.   We are somewhat exasperated with the scandals and accusations swirling around professional sports in general, and professional cycling in particular.

I suppose that we are longing for cyclists who race to meet their competitive instincts.  It might be the Sand Creek Series, a weekly ride to Cave of the Winds,  Nic’s Saturday morning training ride, or beating the train on the uphill side of the Greenland Open Space Trail.  The race is in the rider, not the venue, or the promotional photos.   If you just hate for someone to pass you, you’re already a bike racer.

Come by the store, and write down your favorite ‘Tour de Jour’ route, ride, or impromptu competition.  Just for telling us something, you will be entered in a drawing for the Thrilling Comfort of Body Geometry Comp shorts.  If we can get more details from you, we will write up your race for this website, or add a link to your own rendition of it on line.  Tune up your sprint, and get out there!

We’re encouraging a little risk-taking this summer with a sale price on Body Geometry Comp cycling shorts.   For $65, even the novice rider can enjoy the fit and comfort preferred by folks who ride hundreds of miles a week.    Look for the ‘Thrilling Comfort’ tag, and find a new source of riding pleasure.

Why does a person need bike shorts?   It’s not just the snug fit of lycra, although sports science says that compression of muscles provides better muscle function.  It’s also getting rid of seams between the rider and the saddle.   Before the 80’s, most shorts featured a piece of chamois sewn into the crotch area.  This covered the seams, and helped prevent chafing.  However, when washed, real leather develops the texture of cardboard.  So many riders aired out their shorts instead of washing them, and special leather salves were applied to the chamois. Now it’s OK to wash yer britches! Today’s ‘chamois butter’ is appled to the butt, and not to the pad, which is most often made from heat=molded layers of machine washable anti-bacterial fabrics.

Bike shorts are designed for riding, not for standing around.  The waistline is low in the front for bending forward, and high in the back to prevent the dreaded plumber tan line.  The legs are long enough to cover most of the quadriceps muscle.  They are worn without additional underwear.  The jersey goes over the shorts, and is never tucked into the waistband.  Riders who spend long hours in the saddle love the bib style shorts, which eliminate the waistband entirely.

You can pull on other garments over the traditional black bike shorts:  warm-up tights or legwarmers, waterproof trousers, a mini-skirt, or bike dress.    Baggies are a style of double short with an outer short for mountain biking.  Tri-shorts have a very small pad for triathletes who may choose to wear bike clothes under a wetsuit.  The staff at Criterium have chosen shorts that provide the best options for our region and our riders from $40 to $145.   Try them on, and share the secret of a comfortable bike ride.

It doesn’t take the Elephant Rock Ride, the Mayor’s Ride, the Starlight, Ride the Rockies,  or a clean-up day for Section 16 Trails to make June the time to celebrate riding bicycles if you are already a cyclist.*  You are already out there reveling in the sunshine.

There’s just one thing more to consider:  it is a good time to put some of that post-ride euphoria to work on recruitment.   Criterium’s motto is ‘Start Here,’ with lots of ideas for getting your partner, your friends, kids, or co-workers excited about cycling.  Sometimes it just takes an objective, like an organized ride.  Sometimes it’s a tune-up and a more comfortable seat.  Sometimes one of our bike fits will help create confidence.  And sometimes it is a rental–our tandem for a date, or a full suspension mountain bike to make your easy trail into someone else’s achievement.

Our lobby has lots of ride ideas, as well as information from cycling organizations:  People for Bikes, Adventure Cycling, the League of American Wheelmen, Bicycle Colorado, Colorado Springs Bike Club, and lots of organized rides.    Join in, and bring a friend along for the ride.

*All of the events and links are available at Peak Region Cyclist.

Looking for a great price on a bike maintained by some of the best mechanics in town?  Our legendary holiday rental sales will be happening again this year!   Criterium is open Memorial Day, the 4th of July, and Labor Day.  On each holiday, a portion of the rental fleet is retired from service.  Many bikes are current year models, and all have the better part of their useful life ahead of them.  Stop by to keep your eye on a prize.

29er mountain bikes are the big news for this season.  If your friends already have one, they will tell you it’s the latest-greatest, and you can’t live without it.   Here are a few clarfications about the hubbub, and a suggestion to help your decision process:

29″ wheels are the same diameter as road wheels (700c), so the bikes stand taller on the trail.  This is good for speed and comfort.  Tall may not be what you want for slow-speed, technical work.

Some riders have moved from full suspension back to hard tail 29ers to save weight.  The bigger wheel diameter increases comfort while maintaining the stand-in-the-bumps feeling of hard tail mountain biking.  Our Cannondale Flash 29ers are the lightest 29ers in the shop.

29ers are a big category, with hardtails from $549 to $3000, and full suspension bikes in typical full suspension price ranges from $1800 to well over $4000 for full carbon frames. For 2011, we also have two women-specific Myka hardtail 29er’s in 15, 17, and 19″ frame sizes.

To help customers sort out this new category of mountain bikes, Criterium has hardtail 29ers and full suspension models in our rental fleet.  This provides a day, weekend, or a full week of test riding.  If you purchase a bike from us, we will apply one days’ rental fee to the purchase price of your new bike.  It’s a great way to make a fully informed decision.  Love the rental bike?  It has a buy-it-now price, too.

What do bike shop guys do in February?  Some sign up for the roller races at the Triple Nickel.  Aaron won the Gold Sprints by out-spinning the competition (high rpm’s = massive pain the next day, but who cares?)  Josh won the beer sprints by drinking a beer, placing the mug on his head, and then riding 250 meters.  We think that Jose won the race home.

Check out the video of the Colorado Springs Golds Sprints.