One of the projects that Globalbike supplies bicycles to are Reconciliation Ambassadors in Rwanda who work to heal the scars of genocide and create unity. Check out the video to see how the bikes are helping to make a difference and how the Team is involved.

Veloce Speedwear

Team Globalbike is pleased to announce a fantastic partnership with Velocé Speedwear to supply clothing to the Elite Team and the Club Teams in 2011. Based in Miami, Velocé (pronounced velo-che) is an international maker of custom clothing for cycling, triathlon, and speed skating. With a wide range of products including a full line of accessories like vests, arm warmers, knee warmers, gloves, etc., Team Globalbike is going to be racing in style with matching…. well…. everything!

As a supplier of custom design clothing, Velocé is unique for not having a minimum order. You can order 1 or 100 and get the same great service and quality products. You can’t beat this feature if you are a small team or an individual looking for custom design.

Velocé has all the features the team was looking for. Flat-lock stitching on everything, premium Italian chamois, mesh panels in the jerseys, advanced fabrics, short turn-arounds, etc.

Stay tuned for some product reports and photos of the Globalbike kits soon! In the mean time, check out Velocé for yourself: website, facebook, twitter

Velocé Speedwear

Hawk Bottom Brackets

Globalbike is pleased to announce that Hawk Racing is returning in 2011 as the official team supplier of Bottom Brackets and Pulley wheels. More races were won in 2010 in the Southeast on Hawk BBs than any other brand. The smooth and resistance-free bearing design only made us faster and is an addictive feeling.

“A good test of your BB bearings is remove the chain from the chainrings and hold it away so the cranks spin freely. Now give your cranks a good spin and see how long they keep spinning,” says Josh Whitmore, Globalbike Team Manager. “A normal BB will stop spinning in a few revolutions. The Hawk BB just keeps on going. This is a difference you can feel when pedaling also. As soon as you get on the bike you can notice it just feels easier.”

The team prefers the Globalbike Green color, but you can choose any color you want or be plain with black or silver.

Hawk Racing Pulley Wheels

The team is also excited to add the Hawk Racing pulley wheels to our list of secret weapons for 2011. With the same bearing technology as all of the Hawk products, the team drive-trains will be the smoothest in the pack.

“You really have to read up on Hawk’s bearings,” says Josh. “The whole ceramic thing is sort of a gimmick. You can achieve the exact same low-friction without needing ceramic material.  Hawk’s bearings are a fraction of the cost.”

Hawk racing also makes a host of other products including high quality wheels, custom clothing, and a range of specialty BMX parts.

Team Globalbike is also pleased to announce that you too can ride with the same efficiency as the team, and spend less money. We’ve arranged a 10% off coupon code. Click here for more details.

Get 10% off your next order of Hawk Racing Products

Boyd Cycling to Give Away 2 Wheelsets

This just in from Boyd Cycling:

We are going to give away two alloy wheelsets this Christmas to two juniors in the Carolinas who need better equipment. It’s no secret that cycling can be an expensive sport to get into. Often times very talented riders don’t get an opportunity to see how far they can go because of a lack of funds and/or equipment.

So, we would like to help out a bit by giving a little assistance to a couple of junior riders who don’t have access to the nicest equipment. If you know of a junior rider who could use this, please email me at boyd@boydcycling.com and let me know who they are and why they deserve to win.

The two riders will be picked the week before Christmas and the wheelsets will arrive to them a couple days before Christmas. To be eligible to win requires that the rider displays a very good character, strong work ethic, and determination to succeed. I am not just looking for the rider with the most amount of talent, or one who will be seen swearing in public while riding the product. I want to show that through hard work and having a good character more can be accomplished than buying the most expensive bike out there.

One winner will be chosen from North Carolina and one from South Carolina. Let’s make this next year a great one for two junior riders that deserve it.

From the Globalbike organization side of things, I’ve just learned of a fantastic effort by an individual to help raise money for the organization. Jim Bob Wilson, director of Camp Wayfarer in Flat Rock, NC has pledged to ride his bicycle from California to Florida in December to raise money for the organization. He is hoping people will sponsor him by the mile and/or join him on different segments of his ride.

What a fantastic idea!

To Join Jim Bob click here for more information

This is one of the coolest projects yet to benefit the Globalbike organization. Pedal Pop is a cycling art show and celebration. If you are going to be in Greenville for the US Pro Championships, you’ve got to check this out! Saturday night is the show opening and everyone can view the artwork downtown on the day of the road race. 20 artists have been commissioned to make 20 prints each of cycling related artwork. The artwork is for sale and all proceeds go to Globalbike and Team Type 1.

Check it out here.

Make sure to get your tickets for the opening before the event!

pedalpop

Wow, we’re already into September. Where did the summer go? We were so busy with races, travel, and the rest of our lives, we barely had a chance to sit back and soak it all in. I personally competed in over 60 road events this season so far – that’s a lot! On quick reflection, I am super proud of the team this year. We accomplished all our goals and more.

We proved that a group of strong racers can dominate regionally if they operate like a true team – as a whole unit. I hope we helped to change the typical race dynamic in the Southeast by being one of the few teams to actually work effectively together and showing that it leads to good results. I can picture in my mind, all the textbook leadout trains we put together for the Sprinters Forkner and Renkema (like the wins at the Rock Hill Road Race or NC State Criterium Championships). I can also picture all the times when we put the entire team on the front to bring back a breakaway that we weren’t represented in (like stage 2 of the Joe Martin Stage Race where Sweeting won the stage after the team brought back a 6min break). Sure there was a learning process, but it mostly came naturally which is a testimony to the great group of guys on the team. We had a streak where we won at least something every weekend for about 2 months, Sometimes winning multiple events in different states with a split team.

We also achieved national recognition by having a strong presence in National level events. We are currently ranked 3rd amateur team in NRC points (ahead of teams like California Giant) and have the highest ranked amateur in the country on the team (Sweeting). With the team’s help, Sweeting racked up an overall win at Joe Martin Stage Race and 6th overall in the Nature Valley Grand Prix, two of the nations biggest stage races. Our efforts gained recognition by national media coverage like cyclingnews.com and Velonews.

We were able to make a profound impact for our mission – to be a marketing force for the Globalbike organization. Our efforts helped the organization with untold exposure and donations, allowing them to expand into yet another country. Our sponsors – like Catoma Adventure Shelters – also reaped the benefits of our marketing exposure, increasing sales.

For me, I am most proud of maintaining a team that just worked well. Everyone on the team had the same goals and were very easy to work with and be around. We just had to show up and execute. No big egos, no wild selfish actions in races, just well done teamwork on and off the bike.

What’s next? Well for many of us, cyclocross season is just getting going. I’ll race another 25-30 events this fall in the CX world. Others are still maintaining the Globalbike ways in the remaining road events of the season (wow is it a long season). In any case, we’re casting our sights on 2011. We’ve already attracted additional financial support from new sponsors and aren’t done yet. We hope to grow, make it to more big events, continue our winning ways and spread the word of Globalbike. Keep an eye out for us, this match has just been lit and the fury of the fire hasn’t peaked yet!

Globalbike’s Presented By Sponsor, Catoma Adventure Shelters is having a SALE! if you need a great tent, check this one out.

The 2-up would be a fantastic tent for camping at your favorite campground or bringing along on your next motorcycle or bicycle camping trip. The feature that the team likes the best is the easy set up. The poles are permanatly a part of the tent. You just take it out of the bag and hold it up, snap the fittings into place and viola – your tent is up. No more hasle of trying to figure out how tents work or what pole goes where.

Click here for more info.

Boyd Johnson aboard a bike he built himself...

Team Globalbike tackles the high mountains of NC…

The French Broad Classic started with a fast and nearly flat 20.5k TT along the river near Marshall, NC Friday night. Cameron Cogburn of CCB rocked the course, winning by almost 50sec. Globalbike’s Boyd Johnson clocked the 5th best time with sprinter David Forkner also having a breakout TT in 9th. Only 24 seconds separated 2nd to 15th places, meaning the competition was tight. Besides getting to play with the Boyd Bow & Aero TT bike, the night served to sort out who would be the ones to watch in the overall omnium.

Early Saturday morning, the P/1/2 field set out on a 65mile course with over 6500ft of climbing. Although nearly always going up or down, the course was marked by a longer tough climb at the 50mile mark and a steeper several mile climb to a summit finish. The team plan was to control any breakaway attempts before the first bigger climb and not let anything get more than a minute on the field.

Globalbike controls the field in the road race

The plan worked well as a breakaway got up the road. Josh Whitmore and Graham Foster stayed on the front for the majority of the next 40 miles riding a tempo hard enough to keep the break between 30sec and 1min. The pace was fast enough to discourage any other attacks. The team decided to intentionally not catch the break till the first big climb.

On the first climb, the main group caught one of the escapees leaving only Tyler Karnes of Hincapie Development off the front by a slim margin.  The climb forced a selection in the group with 8 riders including Globalbike’s Boyd Johnson going over the top together in pursuit of Karnes. In the terrain to the finish climb that group swelled to 15-16 as riders caught back on and Karnes was reeled in.

All the fireworks were lit on the final climb to the finish. With all the favorites in the lead group, it was mano-a-mano to the line. With 1km to go, Boyd Johnson, Andy Baker of Team Ion, and Jonathan Clark of United Healthcare were the only ones left duking it out at the front. Boyd and Andy each attacked several times with Clark setting a more steady tempo but catching back up between each attack. Boyd’s final attack proved good enough to propel him to the line ahead of the others, taking the stage win and moving into the lead in the omnium.

The finish of the criterium was met with a downpour

Going into the final day’s criterium, the team’s main objective was to protect Boyd’s omnium lead and secondary if possible go for the stage win as well. The fight for the overall was close with only one point separating Boyd from Any Baker and only a couple back to Jonathan Clark. The team would have to be on its toes to make the quick calculations to decide what to control and what to chase during the race. Each of the favorites rolled their dice with breakaway attempts but each time, a strong team Globalbike pulled them back into the fold.

40 mins into an otherwise dry and sunny race, the skies opened up and a thunderstorm opened its faucet on the race. With lightning striking nearby, the race officials decided to shorten the race. We saw 12 to go one lap, then the next time we came around, we had 5 laps to go.

A late race attack by Andy Baker looked to be the most serious challenge of the day. It took the whole Globalbike team to bring it back with only 1 lap remaining. The effort set Boyd up well for the bunch sprint, but Keck Baker of Harley Davidson took the stage win with Jonathan Clark coming in for 2nd. Boyd finished 4th, retaining enough points to clinch the omnium victory.

Overall this was another fantastic weekend for the team with team tactics going almost exactly as planned.

Check out the article about the race in the Asheville Citizen Times