A muddy challange - for man and material...

Last weekend I participated on a MTB XC race during the Bike Days in Solothurn, btw the largest bycicle festival in Switzerland. Originally I even planned to pedal the 65 km to the event, visit the expo, join the race and then pedal back home, what seemed to be the perfect training for my upcoming challanges. Fortunately the weather was to nasty so I decided to drive there with my camper. As it was nearly constantly raining for the last 24 hours, start area transformed to a truly mud pit. Nevertheless it is always a special honor to race on the same course where world champions and olympic heros as Nino Schurter and Julien Absalon have raced just one day. Watch the reace documentary from Swiss TV to get an impression.

After only 5 minutes in the race I remembered how much these short and fast races can hurt when one is out of practice. But first things first.

Good to meet André Effe from Pinion (technical sales & distribution). He providing technical details in exchange of my front experience with the brand new C1.12 gearbox.

As I spent to much time at the expo chatting around I had only time to inspect part of the race course before the start.

Crossing the muddy jungle of Solothurn.

Most of what I saw (beside the earlier mentioned mud pit) was asphalt so I expected a fast and mostly flat race, what turned out to be wrong. About 30% of the race cours is in a normally nice hill behind the city of Solothurn. In the present condition it turned into a slipery and energy spoiling nightmare, partly unable to cycle. The following downhill, with 2 breath-taking decents should be fun in dry conditions, with limited view due to dirty glasses rather an infernal and dangerous ride, at least during the first of four laps.

The result a almost crash, bruised rips and loss of my mobile phone. Completely exhausted I started chasing my race mates and catched them shortly before passing the start/finish area. This procedure I repeated for 3 more laps except the the ungentle reunion of the saddle and my left rips ;-). While most of my competitors started having problems with their derailleur and chains my Pinion C.12 gearbox in combination with the Gates carbon belt one more time prooved to be the best choice in terms of reliability in really harsh conditions.

The oversize tires rolled very well on the pave but were a bit too large in the mud what resulted in uncontrolled sliding. While the Lauf fork was again the plain eye-catcher I missed some travel in the rough downhill part.

Resume: 
A cool event with great people and an exceptional experienc that I will remember much longer than the convalenscence of my rips. I'll be back next year ;-)

Im Vollbildmodus anzeigen

Im Vollbildmodus anzeigen

Im Vollbildmodus anzeigen

Im Vollbildmodus anzeigen

Im Vollbildmodus anzeigen

Im Vollbildmodus anzeigen

Im Vollbildmodus anzeigen

Im Vollbildmodus anzeigen

Why must holidays always begin with stress?

Holidays are actually meant to recover from everyday life and work, but every of my holidays begin with even more stress than any other day.

Ok travelling with my family and gadget (3 girls and OSPA) is not the ideal setup to sink the level of adrenalin, but to be frank, its not really much better when I am travelling on my own. So it has probably something to do with my resistance to plan very much in advance. While my job requires enough structure and providence, I keep telling myself that should also give a break to my narrow-minded lifestyle when going on holiday, but this is probably rather an excuse than reality.

However, for this time, a good nice week in Mallorca, I decided to bring the OSPA bike with me. Mallorca one of the best cycling spots in spring. When I first came here about 20 year ago, only some hotels were open, the guests mainly bicycle maniacs trying to pump as many kilometers in their legs as possible, the ideal preparation for the upcoming bike season. Nowadays approximately 25% of the hotels are already open and depending on the location still mostly cyclists but more and more also families with their kids.

As usual I pass at my bike shop (www.marquart-radsport.ch) to get a box for shipping the bike, but this time, I forgot that my OSPA is slightly bigger than a normal bike, what raised my blood pressure about 2 hours before we intended to leave to the airport. 
For one time I was thankful I watched countless of these Macgyver movies, so with some additional carton and a role of duktape I extended the box and added some extra space for the front wheel.So finally we made it to the airport in time and everything went easy. A highlight was our rental car with the big box in the trunk.

Today I assembled my OSPA bike and luckely there were no screws left ;-) I really like the measures on my Syntace seatpost and the SQLab handlebar, they allow to reassemble and adjust everything 100% as it was before.

After a acclimatization day with the family I went for a first short ride just behind our hotel, as I found a nice trail I just kept going uphill and finally rached top of the small hill with a fairly nice view over the bay.

I plan to do some nice rides over the next days and will surely post some insights of my journey on the island.

Wish you all a nice spring time and strong legs, Mark

Tortour Cyclocross - review of a remarkable race weekend

Last weekend the me and the OSPA bike successfully participated at the Tortour Cyclocross 2017 – a three-day event with a prologue on Friday plus two crispy stages on Saturday and Sunday.

I participated with my best bike body Nello, we always enjoy to race in a team of 2, having a lot of fun and support each other when it gets difficult. As Nello races with a typical cyclocross bike we have a very different setup, while his strong suit are the fast flats and slight speedy ascents, I can profit from my big tires when the ground gets really loos, in steep uphill and especially in technical descents.

Prologue – Friday 10. February 2017

Characteristics: 8 laps with total 24 kilometres and 680 m elevation gain
Highlight:            Nice to pass the finish line 8 times
Lowlight              Very fast, so we suffered the first 3 laps, due to insufficient warmup. We arrived a bit late before the race (I came directly from a week skiing with my family in Austria.
Ranking               10 of 21

 

Stage 1 – Saturday 11. February 2017

Characteristics 85 kilometre with 850 meters’ elevation gain
Highlight:            Nello started fast and lead us to a fast group that we could race with and finally overtake. Good mood during the race, excellent teamwork and great finish.
Lowlight:             No lowlight – it was partly colder than expected, but no problem.
Ranking:              7 of 22 (yeapheee… in the first 30% - that’s always our goal ;-)

A nice capture of our strongest section during the weekend - Nello in front (aka "the locomotive")

Stage 2 – Sunday 12. February 2017

Characteristics: 76 kilometres with approx. 1500 meter elevation gain
Highlight:            arriving in Glattfelden – nice landscape and the snow on around the “Lägere”. The final 20 km Nello was our locomotive – unbelievable how strong he was after the hard time he had in the hills before.
Lowlight:             We knew it would not be Nello’s day, as he was suffering from a cold and didn’t sleep well. Already in the first ascent we couldn’t keep up with the teams we had around us the last days. Our team mates from Radsport Marquart came to watch the race, but they missed us on three occasions, so we only learned from some of our competitors that we had the biggest supporting group on the track.
Ranking: 11 of 21

Bird's eye view of us riding on a beautiful trail along the Rhine

Summary

Overall ranking 9 of 21
It was a great weekend, but me and my team mate Nello were very happy it was over. The Sunday was extremely exhausting, we are tired and need some rest. The event as such was extremely well organized and the nice bunch of local, national and international riders create a extraordinary atmosphere. It’s very easy to get into contact with other riders and the support for each other during the race is cool.

The OSPA bike was an exotic apparatus and received a lot of compliments. I was really surprised, how well the big Schwalbe Rocket Ron tires (27.5+ / 2.8) worked in the fast parts. Ok, I was unable to make speed for my race mates, but could follow in the slipstream. This was extremely important, not loose contact. I was afraid, that the total weight of the bike would waste too much of my energy but I felt good on the bike at all times. The Pinion gearbox turned out to be a real treasure, I always had the 100% right gear, especially important while pushing Nello with my left hand in the last ascents, where I could smoothly change the gear with my right hand. The Lauf fork worked extremely well on the course and is probably the best fork for any race of this kind. I doubt to ever build or buy a real Cyclocross bike but if, the Lauf fork (www.laufforks.com) would definitely be my first choice.

The next Tortour Cyclocross (www.tortour.com/cyclocross) will take place in June 2018 in Gstaad, Switzerland. I hope to see you there.

Impressions and video-casts

5 minutes before the start of the prologue

After the prologue

Stage 1 – before the race…

Stage 1 – successfully completed…

Preparing for Stage 2

Bye bye Tortour Cyclocross 2017

Image gallery

Profile of me and OSPA in the AZ (in GERMAN)

Dieser Informatiker hat sich zum 50. Geburtstag ein massgeschneidertes Velo geleistet

«Cyclosophe», nennt sich Mark Lauzon mit einem Augenzwinkern, und «Innovator». Was hat ein Velo mit Weisheit zu tun? Und wie kommt ein Informatik- und Marketingspezialist überhaupt aufs Velo? «Mit knapp 30 wollte ich wissen, was noch geht», sagt der drahtige Mann, der die 15 Jahre zuvor kaum Sport getrieben und «nicht so gesund gelebt» hat. Im Radfahren fand er schliesslich seine Passion.

«Ich brauche Ziele», sagt Mark Lauzon. Und er sei ein Strukturmensch. Seine Hauptlebensachsen sind die Arbeit, die Familie und das Hobby. Da gibts Berührungspunkte: Ehefrau Edina ist oft seine Betreuerin. Das nächste Ziel, just nach den Skiferien mit der Familie – Lauzons haben drei Mädchen – , ist das Cyclocross-Rennen in Glattfelden vom 10. bis 12. Februar. In drei Tagen sind 180 Kilometer zurückzulegen, und das nicht auf der asphaltierten Strasse, sondern auf Nebenstrassen und im Gelände, wo Geschicklichkeit gefragt ist. Radquer sozusagen. Und da kommt sein neues Ospa-Velo zum Einsatz, seine Eigenentwicklung.

Velofahren hat für Mark Lauzon auch etwas Meditatives. «Neue Ideen kommen nicht auf Abruf», sagt er. Zweimal pro Woche fährt er mit dem Velo von Schlossrued nach Baden zur Arbeit. 80 bis 90 Kilometer hin und zurück. Da gibt es verschiedene Routen, aber die Hauptstrasse geht gar nicht. Zum Beispiel über Kulm, Dürrenäsch, das Seetal, Dottikon, Mellingen. Oder der Aare entlang. Dann steigt er morgens um halb sechs aufs Velo. Einige Monate hat er gebrütet über seinem Ospa-Experiment, sicher auch beim Velofahren.

Formeln als Hilfen

«Ich liebe die Einfachheit», sagt Mark Lauzon. Und hinter Ospa steckt eine Philosophie. Die vier Buchstaben sind Programm: One Service Per Annum. Ein Service pro Jahr. Er weist auf das Velo hin, mit dem er die letzte Woche im Schnee, Matsch und Regen gefahren ist. Abspritzen, fertig. Einfach, schlank, einheitlich, schnell. So soll es sein.

Mark Lauzon mag griffige Formeln. Gegen das Multitasking, das zu Überforderung und Burnout führen könne, setzt er die Oipu-Formel: One Interaction Per Unit. Eine Handlung pro Einheit. Ospa ist eine Anwendung davon. Einmal waschen pro Woche wäre eine andere.

Nachdem er an der Velomesse in Friedrichshafen «keinen Göppel von der Stange» gefunden hat, der seinen Ansprüchen genügte, begann er zu zeichnen und wartungsarme Komponenten zusammenzustellen. Das Kernstück ist eine integrierte 18-Gang-Schaltung, die jährlich beziehungsweise alle 10 000 Kilometer nur einen Ölwechsel benötigt. Statt einer Kette, die nach Schmierung quietscht, hat das Velo einen Karbonriemen. Ein massgefertigter Titanium-Rahmen und eine wartungsfreie Karbongabel aus Island gehören zum Ospa. Radsport Marquart in Neuenhof hat ihm das Fahrrad zusammengebaut. Geht Ospa bald in Serie? Lauzon lacht: «Das ist ein Nischenprodukt.» Und kostet zwischen 7000 und 8000 Franken.

«Nicht ganz schmerzfrei»

«Tortour» heisst das Cyclocross-Rennen in Glattfelden am Wochenende. Das klingt nicht gemütlich. «Nicht ganz schmerzfrei», meint Mark Lauzon, und es mache auch nicht immer nur Spass. Man komme an seine Grenzen, doch setze auch dieser Sport Glückshormone frei. Wichtig dabei: Er fährt das Rennen im Zweierteam mit seinem besten Freund, da kann man einander Mut zusprechen, ja wenn nötig sogar schieben. Sein Ospa-Velo hat mehr Gewicht als die meisten anderen, breitere Reifen, ein Handicap, doch er hofft auf ruppiges Gelände.

Zudem ist die Selbsterfahrung wichtiger als die Rangliste, besonders beim 1000-Kilometer-Rennen vom Bodensee quer durch die Schweiz bis zur Fredy-Mercury-Statue in Montreux im Juni dieses Jahres, zwei Wochen nach einem 24-Stundenrennen in Ligurien. «Da gibt es keine Rangliste, nur die Namen der Teilnehmer und ihre Zeit», sagt er. 100 Fahrer können an diesem unbegleiteten Rennen, wo man mit Sack und Pack völlig auf sich allein gestellt ist, teilnehmen. Der Reiz hier ist das Ungewisse, der «Ausbruch aus dem Reglementierten»: «Ich weiss nicht, wie es herauskommt.»

Wer weiss: Vielleicht kommt der Cyclosoph Mark Lauzon in diesem Sommer pedalend auf ein neues Projekt für das nächste Jahr?

Link zum > Online-Artikel

OSPA Project Announcement/Presentation

Although the OSPA project started back on 1st of January 2017, the official project and bike presentation only took place on Friday 27. January. Before the curtain was left, Mark told how the OSPA idea ignited and how he selected the core components to realize his dream bike.

A nice bunch of friends, supporters and interested parties gathered, listened and cheered up on the OSPA experiment.

OSPA Roadtrip from Budapest - Bratislava to Vienna / HU, SK, AT

No doubt, the plan to cycle the first 300 km from Budapest on my way back home to Switzerland was ambitious. At the end it was not solely the snow and gust of wind with speed of up to 100 km/h, but also my incompetence to navigate without electronic devices (run out of energy, due to the cold temperatures), that stopped my way before Vienna. 

Széchenyi Chain Bridge, Budapest 2. January 2017 - the starting point of my bikepacking trip to Vienna

OK with 246 km I road during the two days, I was not so far from the target, but near enough is not good enough ;-)   

Crossing an old man on a bicycle in the wide planes of the Hungarian Pustza

However the trip was filled with good experiences and I learned a lot about riding in the cold, the bike and myself.

Here my lessons learned:

1. Never start a ride like this without a printed map
   After the blackout of my cell phone and the navigation due to the cold temperature, I was completely lost and made several fatal navigation mistakes . As a former scout, I always thought to be fairly good to navigate with the sun, that was wrong. The sun rises less and starts setting shortly after 2 p.m. and turns the day to night shortly after 4 p.m. After cycling about 3 to 4 hours in extreme cold, my body and mind switches on reduced mode to save energy, reactions get slower and the error rate in taking fast and wise decisions rises.

2. Carry water in a isolated bottle ore in a backpack
   With temperatures of - 8C to -3C and the windshield factor my water turned to sludge after only 45 minutes driving, after about an hour no chance to drink.

3. Put a tag on the bike and in my pocket
   They should adhere minimum my name, an emergency contact and my blood type.
   In case of an emergency I might not be able to properly articulate, especially in remote areas, where people do not speak English nor German (my Hungarian is still very limited), it can be very helpful that rescuer can quickly identify and help.

Frozen water in my bottle after about 1 hour riding time at - 8C / 17F

3. January 2017. Ready for take-off on day 2, - Komárom at the border from Hungary to Slowakia

The bikepacking bags from Ortlieb worked extremly good. As always one first has to get used how to best pack all the equipment and what to store where, but after two days riding and packing I was already used to it and look forward to refine my packing routine.

As did not reach the original target Vienna, I was a bit disappointed. After driving back to Switzerland by car on Wednesday 4. January, I went to work by car on Thursday, but on Friday I filled up the missing kilometers by pedaling to work at -12C / 10F, so I ended the first week of my OSPA project with 350 km - a personal record for a week in January ;-)

Both nights I managed to take my bike into my room. What a nice view to go to sleep and wake up ;-)

AsiaCenter BÚÉK Kupa - Budapest, HUNGARY

Today the new year and so the OSPA experiment started for real. I participated in a fun bike race the AsiaCenter BÚÉK Kupa in Budapest, HUNGARY. Some 55 participants with all sorts of bikes and various performance levels were present. 

The course was fairly fast with only a few bumpy sections so a clear advantage for Cyclocross bikes. However, I had an exiting fight with another biker on a 29er (#7). The OSPA bike performed very well,  although it the track was to fast so the big tires couldn't  fully unfold its strengths. My personal highlight was to see, that the bike works also under race conditions, where fast shifting and change of directions are required. 

The Pinion gearbox worked extremely fine and thanks to the eye catching Lauf fork the bike was the attraction of the spot, various bikes and spectators came along for a chat and to take some pics :-)

Tomorrow I will head back home and ride the OSPA bike to Vienna, I am keen to see how well I recovered and how good I can cope with the chilly temperature - the weather forecast is between -5C to +1C.  
 

Weekend tour to Denkendorf, GERMANY

Last weekend I packed my camper and did a tour to Denkendorf, the home of QUANTOR bikes and Pinion. Christoph from QUANTOR bikes offered me a parking lot right in front of their shop. After the night-shift crew from the factory site went home in the middle of the night, the parking was mine and I had a nice an quiet sleep. 
After a nice breakfast in the camper I stepped in the QUANTOR shop of a nice introduction chat about the OSPA experiment. Christoph offered good coffee and provided me with valuable input, before he sent me on two test rides, one with his carbon-built "Triebwerk" equiped with a 12-geared Pinion (P1.12) and the second "Kraftstoff" made of high end aluminum and the 18-gear P1.18. Both bikes convinced from a qualitative point of view. The Triebwerk is lighter and a real beauty, non the less no option for my OSPA project as the carbon frame does not allow to insert the carbon belt drive I require for my project. The Triebwerk's downside is the max. 2.3' size of the tires. So both great bikes, but not a perfect fit for my OSPA project.
Thanks Christoph/Quantor for the great hospitality and congrats for the great bikes you are building.
So my journey to find the bike for my project goes on...