Check out this rad little helmet cam vid filmed by Mik of Ross and Will. Keep an eye out for Ross's Jittery Joes Kit.

Big Pimpin' Monday - Cold war track sprinters.

Weve decided to do something a little different for this edition of Big Pimpin' Monday. Some of you may have expected us to go with Cav seen he won the world champs last week, Lew has been pestering us to do an edition on the Kardashians. Today were going with an era as opposed to a person.

Along with the ongoing space race and the arms race during the Cold War, sports competitions were important to the international reputation for members of the Eastern Block. Winning gold at world championships and the Olympics created a perception of the success of one way of life versus another and was just as important as the various other races the USA and USSR were running.

It was a time when men where men and some women were pretty close to being men too. Track cycling, especially the sprint events were big business during the cold war. Huge gains were made in the field of sports sciences in regards to the training of sprint athletes.

It's well documented that the Eastern Bloc countries may have been also experimenting with some cutting edge supplements at the time but hey the racing was fast and action was intense. Sure some woman ended up with moustache's and there were a few retired athletes with anger issues but it seems like a price well worth paying.

Just fucking look at the guy.

If the Eastern Bloc counties werent so poor this Mofo would have been wearing a gold chain around his neck, thats how big Pimpin' he is.

You can bet these two went through handlebars about as quick as they went through the women.

Big Pimpin' Monday - Mario Cipollini

When it comes to big pimps, they don't come bigger than Mario Cipollini.

At the peak of his career, Cipollini's speed was unrivaled, and he is credited with being the first rider with a sprint train. The red jerseys of his Saeco/Cannondale team were commonly seen at the front of the peloton toward the end of the flat Grand Tour stages in the late 1990s. The train kept the pace high in the closing kilometers, to dissuade opposing riders from attacking and to ensure that in the final 200–300 meters, Cipollini was the only cyclist able to maintain the speed.

Cipollini made no secret that he did not like climbing stages, and while he completed all stages of the Giro on many occasions, he infuriated purists by not attempting mountain stages at the Tour or Vuelta. While this is a common practice with sprinters without points jersey aspirations so as to save themselves for the rest of the season, Cipollini's practice of releasing photos of himself lounging at the beach while the others struggled in the mountains earned him more than his fair share of attention in this regard.

Cipollini, despite being married through much of his career, was regarded as a sex symbol and rumored to be a womaniser. He did little to dispel these notions with comments such as, "If I weren't a professional cyclist, I'd be a porn star".

Super Mario, we dip our big ass, fuzzy pimp hat to you sir!

Big Pimpin Mondays

We're starting a new tradition today, Big Pimpin' Mondays.

Essentially we're going to be posting rad pics of riders that we think fall into the category of Big Pimpin'. Big Pimpin' ain't easy and it don't come cheap so these are going to be some special pics. Much to Will's disappointment, its not going to be pics of him every Monday.

For the inaugural Big Pimpin' Monday, we have gone with John Tomac. Tomac is probably the greatest all round cyclist of all time. While he was winning World Cup Cross Country and Downhill races he was also racing top level road events like Paris-Roubaix for the 7-11 Team. Cop that Cadel.

Rad Haircut, Killer Glasses, Drop Bars and a Yeti. Bangin!

Race plate trimming 101 Kids

If that wasn't enough to have you moist, his son Eli is being touted as the next best thing in Motocross and John has been coaching a certain rider by the name of Aaron Gwin who won a shit ton on World Cup Downhill races this year - Bike James must be cutting himself!

John Tomac - Big Pimpin'

Cross Melburrrrrrrrrrrrrrn!

The Cross Melburn series is being held at Lysterfield park which is traditionally a mountain bike venue but those who tore themselves away from their latte’s, deeply intellectual conversations and left the confines of the inner city were rewarded with a sweet course, cracking weather, good coffee and good people.

The day started early and once again Ben Vlass proved that when it comes to erecting a tent/marquee he is your man. Once setup many coffees were downed while a lot of shit was talked which is the iRide way.

Will and Llew were looking pretty relaxed knowing that Ontario’s under 12 cyclocross champion Ken Moore wasn’t going to be there to cause them any trouble. Will also seemed fresh as having spent the previous day being shown the basics of bike mechanics by Ross he wasn’t able to head out on an easy road ride only to come home 3 hours later fucked because he is always trying to prove he is a heavy hitter.

Ben Vlass was racing in the Open class on his mountain bike this time so he was the first to race, he would have the full “support” of the team from the sideline. Vlass looked good at the start but seemed to lose himself in the middle of the race unlike Andrew Threlfall who was charging through the field once warmed up. 3 quarters into the race Vlass rolled through the starting area looking a little too casual. This prompted Will to throw his almost empty coffee cup at Vlass and make the threat that if he didn’t pick things up next time he rolled through it was going to be a chair coming his way. Wasting a good coffee like that hurt Will but he knew that he needed to be a hero at that moment and take one for the team in order to motivate Vlass. Suffice to say Vlass put in for the rest of the race for a solid finish.

Just as the open class finished Phil Wood and Double Trouble in the form of Simon and David Ross rolled up, so more coffees were downed, more shit was talked and even a few practice laps were done.... well maybe 1 practice lap.

With A grade CX class due to the start soon the boy started warming up Will, Llew and ring in Dan all started rolling around while Ross was warming his voice up for the vocal torture he was about to dish out. Dan got off to his usual flying start while Llew, followed by Will were slightly impeded by a rider who made up for his lack of fitness with an ability to block riders like no other. As soon as the track opened up Will was able to lay down some power. Llew tried to follow Will as he laid down the ponies up the climb on the course but then realized Will was probably going to do his traditional party trick of going out hard to early then blowing up so he let him go. About 3 laps in, Rapha Condor rider Casey Munro and Giant rider Lewis Rattray were going hard at trying to tear each other’s legs off. Lewis made a charge but Casey came back for more. Then in an unfortunate twist of fate, whilst doing 40km/h down a gravel road, Lewis gestured to one of his support crew, hit a bump in the road and went down like Divine Brown on Hugh Grant – it wasn’t pretty. Lewis’ arm was gouged to the bone and full of stones. Needless to say he required surgery that night, and if you're reading this Lewy, heal up tiger!

By the halfway point the race seemed to have sorted itself out into a nice order. Will was showing a pain face like no other whilst running about 6th. Dan was holding strong in second and Llew was running about 8th.Not long after this, Will seemed to be running out of power and slowing down a bit. 7th place was getting closer and closer to him and worst of all he could see the large gap he had on Llew was getting slightly smaller each lap. Will feared he may have gone too hard too soon. After all this is cross, not love making.

At this point is it worth bring up the small steep loose pinch climb on the course. Everyone had to walk up it except Llew who was using a combination of skill and power to ride up it. Fast forward to 3 quarters into the race and Will has 7th place right on his wheel. The crew consisting of Ross, Vlass, half of double trouble and other spectators (mainly ladies who couldn’t resist Will’s musk) were all at the pinch climb. After receiving some vocal “support” from the crew, Will came in and powered his way up the pinch climb using less skill then Llew instead favouring horsepower. In the process of doing it Will got his second wind and rode 7th place off his wheel and was chasing down 6th.

Llew was suffering from the burden of having been the only rider to do the pinch climb every lap and had dropped back to 9th. Dan was still holding strong in 2nd, proving that 2 weeks ago at Dirty Deeds round 3 was a mishap from a guy who generally kicks ass. On the 2nd last lap Will caught 5th place then made sure he put a whole lot of sweet daylight between them. The other boy’s positions stayed the same so in the end Dan got 2nd, Will got 5th and Llew got 9th. A pretty solid outing.

Needless to say, the Jamis Nova's are still running brilliantly and the SRAM running gear matches perfectly. Some may have noticed that the team are now rocking the new Garneau X-Lite helmets. At 190 grams, matched with a skinsuit, it is the closet thing to riding naked without getting your 40" python caught in the chain.