We’re back after our little vacation last week. A combination of factors, including getting a huge pile of new products ready for the online store, kept us from getting a newsletter out in time. To make up for it, we’ll set you up this week with another mountain of haphazardly arranged mini-thoughts to help you get your bike fix for the week.

Want some great deals on clothing, wheels or that bike you’ve always wanted? Check out the remaining closeout specials on our web site, in this newsletter, or stop by today for in-store specials. The CompuTrainers are ready for indoor group rides!

I’m Still Loving the Weather

I can’t get enough of the warm November we’ve had. I managed to get 130 miles in over Thanksgiving weekend, which is easily the most I’ve ever done in a 4 day stretch this late in the year. The Lakeside guys and gals were nice enough to let Matt, Alex and me tag along on Saturday and Sunday and continue to learn the ropes of a serious, hard ride. Alex already knows the ropes pretty well because he’s a solid road racer, so he was right at home, and Matt and I are finally starting to get the hang of a 26 mph rotating paceline without blowing ourselves up every 25 seconds. There was a lot less “hanging on for dear life” and a lot more “doing our share” this weekend than last, which was nice. All told, a great end to a good month.

Still Wanna Race?

Thanks to a last minute ‘cross and charity concoction by none other than Jay “Hollywood” Henderson, you can pin a number on in Minnesota one more time before the end of the year. On Saturday, December 5th, Hollywood is putting on a cyclocross race at Vanderbie Park in Bloomington. There’s a 30 minute race and a 60 minute race, with the 30 starting at 11:00 am and the 60 getting going at 11:45 am. Entry fees are $10 or an unwrapped toy to be donated to Toys for Tots. Pretty awesome. Check out the cyclocross forum on the MCF message boards for more details.

6 Weeks ‘Til Pro Racing!

The Tour Down Under is only 6 weeks away. Can you believe it? We’ll get to see RadioShack for the first time, Cadel Evans and George Hincapie riding for BMC, and Robbie McEwen back in action ripping it up on his Team Katusha Ridley Noah, which we can get for you if you wanna keep it euro. The Tour Down Under kicks off January 17th. After TDU, it’s only a few months until the classics.

Speaking of the classics, there’s Internet scuttlebutt floating around about Lance Armstrong getting to the point in his career where grand tour racing might be a thing of the past after this year, leaving him room to focus on winning things like the Tour of Flanders. Paris-Roubaix is said to be a more dangerous game than Flanders, so it’s likely out for Armstrong, but wouldn’t it be cool to see him win on the Velodrome? Not as cool as seeing George win after his string of disappointing disasters, but cool anyhow.

I’d like to see Armstrong win a Giro and set the hour record before he hangs it up again. He did say those were two things he wanted to accomplish before he retired last time, after all.

6 Weeks ‘Til YOU’RE Racing?

We’re pounding out the final arrangements on a possible winter event. You’ve been adequately warned. Get studded tires, get ready. More to come on this in the upcoming weeks.

A Little Optimism

Even if this winter ends up being a horrible beast, thanks to its late onset you’ll be putting tires to pavement in 4 months or less from the time you’re reading this. It could be a lot worse!

Stairway to Hell Photo Contest Winner

We picked a winner for our Stairway to Hell photo contest from the MN State Cyclocross Championship weekend, but we never gave the winner a shout-out in the blog. Frank Rowe won with his photo of our own Alex Meyer running up the stairs. You can check it out on the excelcycle Facebook page. We liked all the other submissions too, so we gave everybody who entered a Park Tool pint glass and an excelcycle water bottle. Kinda makes you wish you’d gotten out to get a few photos, huh?

Freebikes4kidz Still Needs Help

The guys over at freebikes4kiz.org that we told you about a few weeks ago have managed to collect a rumored 400 bikes to be donated to kids that need them. I haven’t heard whether they’re looking for more bikes, but I know they’re looking for people to help out. Head out there, get a picture of you helping out, and post it on the excelcycle Facebook page. We’ll enter everybody who helps and posts a picture on our Facebook page into a drawing for a free excelcycle winter-weight fleece jersey.

Don’t have a Facebook account and don’t feel like taking a couple minutes to make one? Snap the picture anyhow and send it to us via old fashioned email or ask one of the followers at the freebikes4kidz Facebook page to post it up for you with your name and an email address where we can get ahold of you on it.

Don’t know how to work on bikes? Get ahold of them anyhow, they can probably put you to work pumping up tires and cleaning up bikes so the hired guns can work their magic on them a little easier.

If you paid attention earlier in this newsletter, you’ll know it’s a good idea to enter our Facebook contests.

Winter Hours

We’re open from 10 am to 8 pm Monday through Friday, 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday, and Noon to 5 pm on Sunday.

Facebook Group Ride Discussion

We set up some discussion forums on Facebook about our group rides. Each scheduled ride has its own thread, so feel free to add questions or comments, use the forums to see who’s coming on a ride, or even make plans for a post ride drink.

Subscribe to the Rides Email List

If you want to get on our rides email list, just send an email to rides-subscribe@excelcycle.com to sign up. There’s also a new rides list specifically for the Women’s rides. To subscribe, send an email to womensrides-subscribe@excelcycle.com .If you’re planning on coming out for a ride and the weather looks iffy, call ahead to make sure we’re still on.

We Want Your Input!

What do you want to read about in our weekly newsletter? If there’s something we’re missing or something you want more of, shoot us an email and we’ll do our best to write an article about it.

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