Offseason to dos

As offseason has fallen upon us, it’s that time of year to evaluate yourself and your philosophies.  In my current situation, we have had 2 very poor seasons (2 wins in 2010, 3 wins this season) after being 25-3 the two previous seasons.  Obviously, after those two ends of the spectrum it is hard to look at things thru the same eyes.  We are a spread-to-run team.  In 2008 we had a Jr. tailback and a Jr. QB.  The QB missed half the season with a broken collar bone.  The tailback carried the load and was not the same player in week 13 as he was in week 1.  When the season was over, we had a very definite plan.  It was to revamp our passing game to give us the opportunity to be balanced.  We will always be run first but we knew that for an opportunity to advance further in the playoffs we were going to need to be more efficient throwing the ball.  That was an easy offseason.  We visited with the staff at the University of Texas for 3 days and incorporated 4 routes (3 quick game & 1 pap). We also did some addition by subtraction.  We eliminated several routes and really narrowed our focus.  Bottom line…we double our yardage, had more completions than attempts from the previous season, and doubled our TD’s, while keeping the same number of interceptions.  That was a successful offseason.

                Now, after two dismal seasons, where do you start?  Do you being looking closely at personnel, practice plans, philosophy, staff changes, etc.?  There was so much wrong where do you start making it right?  I coach the wide receivers and here is what I decided to do as a start for me.  Our previous head coach left a bunch of COACH OF THE YEAR MANUALS in the field house.  I have seen them there for years and grabbed one or two for trips to the throne before but never really thought of using them as a learning tool.  Just recently, I grabbed one from 1983 and I wanted to share with you some of the things that were in it that have got the mind firing and the x’s & o’s flowing again for me.

The first page had a tribute to Bear Bryant and his famous words –“Am I willing to endure the pain of this struggle for the comforts and the rewards and the glory that go with the accomplishments?  OR : Shall I accept the uneasy and inadequate contentment that comes with mediocrity? Am I willing to pay the price of success?”

That was enough to get me going.  The rest of these tidbits are just a few things I jotted down that I thought were relevant NOW just as they were in 1983.  My top 10…

1.        You have to know what you are doing and what you want to accomplish.  Don’t do it just to be doing it.

2.       Get excited about the 4 yard play.

3.       DO YOUR BEST.  I don’t want the KAMIKAZE pilot that flew 33 different missions.

4.       Factor of 11 – There are 39,916,800 ways to line up 11 objects for all of you multiple guys.

5.       Roger Bannister was the first to break the 4 minute mile.  It was broken 43 times the next 4 years.  Don’t put limitations on yourself.

6.       Be intense enough to get the job done, but relaxed enough to enjoy it. (AMEN)

7.       Again from 1983…Today a player will want to know why you want him to run thru a wall.  You have to tell him why and then he will run thru it.

8.       You have to be willing AND ready to throw on first down and from any place on the field.

9.       Have people around you that like to work.

10.   Be known for something.  Be known for something you hang your hat on.

So what is your plan? What are you going to do?  For those wanting to share ideas and throw things around….lets do it blog style, or shot me an email cmeans@denisonisd.net.  As you may have seen in my other post, I am a HUDL guy that takes full advantage to the exchange features.  If interested in swapping game films, cut ups, drills, etc… shot me an email.

TLI Cyclocross National Champs

The previous weeks races have seen varied fortune on the results sheets, from a 7th to a 25th, but I definately feel like the relentless training is starting to pay off as I creep up a few places every week or manage to hold wheels which had ridden away from me at the start of the season.

The TLI national champs took place at Gateshead International Stadium, only 15 minutes down the road from my house.

The course was top quality ... the howling wind was doing its best to tear down the course markers as the under 12's battled round a shorter version but to the testament to the race organiser and those that helped put this event on the course was repaired as quick as mother nature tried to pull it down.

The course was very similar to previous editions of racing at this venue, running boards, off camber, short descent ... the new addition being a steep climb straight up to the highest point of the course .. just manageable in the big ring afforded by tufo tubs and very low pressures.

The start was along along a wide gravel track ... as always my start would best be described as lethargic as I watched the world ride past me till I woke up mid first lap and started to make a move up the field.

The races within a race started early on but I found as faster riders moved through the field I could grab their wheel and move up with them until I found myself battling for 7th spot with a decent gap behind but a similar decent gap up to the next rider ...

... a quick glance at my watch showed that I only had a couple of laps remaining ... coming up off the gravel road not far from the start finish the rear tub let go of what little pressure was in it and I had flatted.

As I began to walk back to the pit I wondered how much gap I had created back to the riders behind me so got back on course and started to run the rest of the lap back to the start/finish in the hope I could grab a wheel.

Fellow Cross Club rider Adam Cooke who I had only just managed to lap took his lap back and kindly offered me his bike but I knew I had lost the battle for a top 10 so let him finish out his race, close to the start/finish another Cross Club rider Neal Wesley overtook me .. in the pits I was kindly offered Alan Nixon's spare bike so I took off trying to make back a few places.

Not long into the final lap I misjudged a corner and managed to take out one of Alan's team mates ... bending his front mech in the process :( So I loaned out my loaner bike so the guy could finish his race .. I managed to wrestle the front mech into a workable position so set off on a bike 3 sizes too small for me to catch the guy up and give him back his bike.

I managed to return the damaged bike back to its owner on the long climb of the course then rode with him to the end making sure he took the position ahead of me.

All in an eventful race ... I felt good ... the racing was close ... a few weeks off now as I have a short holiday to Brussels with Grace .. but then racing will get busy over christmas with Boxing day cross race and the Macc supercross .. oh and a new bike is being built :)

All images courtesy of Ed Rollason Photography

La Liga: Cristiano Ronaldo score a brace as Real Madrid go six points clear thanks to Barcelona defeat.

Real Madrid derby 4-1 victory over Atletico Madrid saw them open a six points gap in La liga thank to brace and assist from Cristiano Ronaldo and Getafe 1-0 win over defending champions Barcelona. Cristiano Ronaldo have now moved from 14 goals in top scorers log to 16 La liga goals one more than Lionel Messi.


szólj hozzá: Real Madrid 4-1 Atletico

Mazzone Revisited

I wasn’t quite sure if we captured the premise of the Iowa State lesson of schematic concision well enough in the last post.  Admittedly, it was an off-the-cuff editorial to a climactic match.  I also wasn’t sure if we have done a complete enough job to date on stressing the simplicity of concepts within an offense (hemlock has tackled this exceptionally well in previous posts), particularly as it relates to Noel Mazzone this fall.  Yes, we get that Arizona State has underperformed this season and Erickson will likely be gone at the end of this year (though it is a shame, considering how explosive their offense has been), but I don’t believe that discounts the value of learning what is working with Mazzone.

With this in mind and to serve as a type of sidebar edification on the matter, we’re “reposting” an exchange offered by hemlock and I on COACHHUEY (explaining Mazzone’s system).  So not to break the flow of dialogue (or require any actual work on my part) I’m leaving the posts as-is in the sequence they occured .  Hemlock’s thoughtful prose and profound commentary is in gold, while my rambling gibberish is in diarrhea green.

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** I realize some of the video (through Vimeo) hosted here is hard to come by.  If you are not aware of how to rip flash already, I’ll direct you to use Firefox and download the video add-on.  Start a video, then enable the download (and its yours).

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Noel Mazzone is Noel Mazzone. He has always been 1-back. What he's doing in Arizona, is essentially what he's always done, having evolved it through the years.

It IS zone-read, but its all controlled/filtered through a systematic way of horizontally stretching the defense, while at the core being vertically orientated (zone-read, F swing, Stick/Snag/Scat/Drive/Shallows/Verts/and tons of screens). There is an efficiency in his application (which is what we've been writing about) that is worth exploring (certainly doesn't carry near the amount of stuff Air Raid teams currently do). It isn't necessarily the plays themselves, but how they're packaged together and used as punch and counter-punch diagnosis.

How he teaches "the offense" is evident in what you've seen with Threet and Osweiller. They are lightening quick in throwing 3-step and 5-step that appears brutal on defenses (they know exactly what they are looking for based on the concept and process through it all).

I would resist calling Mazzone's offense an extension of the pro-single back. If the source of this thought is Mazzone's stint with the Jets in the NFL then I think it a little off. Too me it's evident that Mazzone went to the NFL not to make that his final destination but as a sort of intense sabbatical in that he went there to see what that game had to teach him. I think his goal was always to get back to the college game.

Brophy and I are going to be writing more about the offense in weeks to come, but here are few things to keep in mind: Mazzone wants to stress the defense's perimeter fulcrum. Watch the USC game; I don't think I have ever scene such transparent objectives in my life; they are constantly trying to widen the defense. When they widen the edge their inside zone game become effective, but you need to remember that it's not a real rugged zone game; they don't do combos and stuff; its only effective if they have one on one matchups. But stretching the defense horizontally also helps his vertical game, because it transforms zone into man.

The thing to remember is this too: they really only carry a few concepts every game, especially in their dropback package. More later...
The thing to remember about their zone game is this: it's bang or bust; if they don't win their individual matchups the play goes no where. Think about some the idiotic comments that Rod Gilmore made the other night. It asked why on second and ten did Mazzone run what he described as an "inside handoff" that went for nothing. Well, it was the right call for the front; they had the numbers to win but simply did not on that play. I like to think of it as "scat" zone. I know that sounds odd, but it's not an inside zone in the Alex Gibbs, Eliot Uzelac sense.

In a lot of ways I think that Mazzone is reviving some old things that Purdue did once upon a time. Think of how he motions his backs; it reminds me of how Purdue, WAZZU, and for that matter Miami of yesterday all motioned to empty as a way of stretching the defense's flanks in order to create windows underneath, but also to put backers and backs on virtual islands.

Also, think of how they use the bubble. People talk about the bubble as an extended hand off, but most teams really do not throw it well enough for it to be considered their stretch or wide zone play; not the case with ASU. I don't think I've seen a team that can run bubbles with the back, from 2x2, or 3x1 as effectively as they do regardless of the look. In a sense, the bubble is one of their plays that they feel that they can run versus anything to make critical yards, regardless of whether the defense knows what coming or not. Their third scoring drive the other night that came of the Vontez's pick was built almost entirely of of bubbles in one form or another.
Chris is right, there is nothing radical about what their doing. We will cover this in a post later in the season, but the one thing that they have done better than just about anybody is to accelerate the speed of their vertical game; when their on their game they throw verticals just as fast as quicks.
Yeah, in a sense it really is just that - big on big; they never really get to the second level; basically, its the back's responsibility to make the backer miss, which is what happens when they get big plays out of their zone game.

In terms of packages they carry, if you watch them closely they basically run four concepts from 2x2 and 3x1: Snag; 4 Verts, Y Cross, and Drive or Shallow. Not a huge Smash team in the conventional sense; when they hit the corner its coming off their 3-man snag a lot.

That said, they do tag the backside with a number of different combos, such as double post, post corner, Dig choice, etc.


Its really about an Economy of Concepts

If you're horizontally stretching a defense and emptying the box (to run.....and run easy) I suppose it isn't necessary to mash and bang with getting vertical movement on IZ and working combos (still not sure if I swallow this just yet) them running IZ will blow your mind ("wtf are they doing!?!") if you're accustomed to how IZ is traditionally run out of 1 back.

watch how they 'zone' against a 3man front....not what you'd think

I would say that Alex Gibbs' one-cut rule is central to the success of the play in for Mazzone's back because of the nature of their scheme, which in part why the back aligns on the QB's heel rather than simply adjacent to him as he does in other zone gun schemes, such as Northwestern's, for example.

 

Against Oregon, the ASU offense relied heavily on motioning the H or Z into the formation.  They barely used motion against Missouri. It is only used to make a more decisive read for the throw (remove a defender from the running lane).

To build on Brophy's point, motion is used here in much the same way as it was used back in the day at Wyoming, Purdue, WAZZU, etc. Yes, it definately clarifies the read for the QB in that it tells him right away which side of the field he's going to work, especially in the Snag game, but it also is a way of putting extreme pressure on the number four to that side, the defense's fulcrum. It's another way of "controlling" this guy and making sure that he is out of the box, that he does not become a 1/5 player in the box.

Though most applications of ASU's offense are pretty basic in each game, the quirks against Oregon would be apparent for most coaches. Whereas most 7-man front defenses, Mazzone can pretty much give his quarterback a very clear picture. With Oregon's nickel/dime (2/1 DL) the picture was extremely cloudy with linebackers and safeties dropping into overhang positions. The heavy use of motion in that game was a product of getting Oregon to declare what they were truly running (where the safeties had to be.....and would the out-leverage themselves from helping their corners against the larger receivers). On the swing, it would primarily require the safety to make the stop because they were playing a heavy dose of C5 and rushing 4 or fire zoning and rushing 5.

What is interesting for coaches, was how Mazzone's system could adapt to it without losing it's shit. Facing something that was as different and that could get into and out of box threats pretty easy (from depth), ASU didn't have to do anything outside of themselves to handle it. With so many defenders outside the tackles on each snap, Oregon really was daring them to run inside and how ASU was hammering the flare/swing to open up the inside. If they threw the swing, it was going to have to be a safety to stop it (leaving X/Z pretty much 1-on-1) . I didn't find many times where Oregon didn't bring 5 every down, so it made the dig/shallow read pretty easy (either the WLB/MLB was widening for the swing or were both dropping to hook) .

What should be interesting for COACHES is not what they are doing but how they are processing the information on the field. Just by segmenting the defense, picking on one particular defender they can make some pretty safe assumptions on where everyone else will fit and who becomes the best ball carrier in that situation.

I think what we have to remember is that all spread offensive systems strive in some way or another to displace defenders and in the process place an inordinate amount of structural stress on the defense's force or alley players. Whether it's RichRod's spread option or Noel Mazzone's version, both offenses are really trying to hammer on a defenses adjuster backer, which in most 2 hi looks is going to be the sam, at least most of the time. RichRod does it with the Zone Read and Zone Bubble, as we've seen in the excellent talks that Brophy has posted on the blog. For Rich, it's really about trying to make sure that the adjuster never gets into the box, he's the guy they need to control. Mazzone too wishes to attack the adjuster, but his objectives are little different; yes, he wants to run inside zone, but, as Brophy noted, it's really more about identifying the defense's anchor player in order to diagnose not the scheme in general, but more importantly, the defense's individual matches, which, if you think about it, in the era of match-zone is more important than ever.

In a sense, it shows how motion is being used again not so much as a way of gaining mismatches and what not, the offense's general scheme already takes care of that, but of diagnosing what it is that the defense is doing. So, in a way, it just shows how we are coming full circle with the spread. Motion that was once jettisoned is now coming back as a tool for identifying a defenses seams and stress points.

Also, as was noted above, motion is not used blindly by Mazzone. In the Missouri game they hardly used motion because MU is fairly straightforward structurally; with Oregon, however, it was necessary.

Real Madrid and Barcelona both win and remain at the top of La Liga as Ronaldo and Messi score.

Real Madrid FC 3-2 victory over Mestala club, Valencia enabled them to maintain 3 points lead three points lead at the top of the Primera division. Jose Mourinho's side scored two goals through Karim Benzema and Sergio Ramos before Roberto Soldado managed to pull one back for the home team. Cristiano Ronaldo score third goal for Real Madrid, his fourteenth La liga goal this season and stay close to messi on top scorers table. Roberto Soldado score his second goal of the match on 82' but his team didn't manage to complete the come back as his other goal for hat-trick was discounted for offside.
Real Madrid vs Valencia 3-2 video highlights of all goals
szólj hozzá: VCF 2-3 RMCF HIGHLIGHTS

Barcelona welcomed Real Zaragoza at Nou Camp and earn 4-0 win. The first two goals netted by Gerard Pique and Lionel Messi in first 45'. In the second half goals from Carles Puyol and David Villa saw Real Zaragoza going down to a 4-0 defeat.

Barcelona vs Real Zaragoza 4-0 video highlights of all goals
szólj hozzá: B4-0Z

Protecting Against Risk: Iowa State

This is usually a weird time of year for most programs.  The season has ended and now your Saturdays exist in unmetered time with no pressing needs to breakdown the next opponent.  No more cramming as much as you can into your day to make sure no stone is left unturned to find a competitive edge.  Now, all you can do is build for the future and remain hopeful in your underclassmen while you cycle through the flashbacks of your season.  This dead silence at the end of the year always comes suddenly, leaving us asking, “Now what”?

It is this time of the “season” that we can take a step back and slow down without consequence.   When under the deadline of the season, there is little time for introspection or second-guessing.  So now that we aren’t faced with the task of treading water, what would be the best use of your staff’s time? It isn’t researching a new scheme, installing new plays, or trying to innovate a new clinic talk.  This off-season, try re-evaluating the efficiency of your offense.  Rather than making things more difficult by adding plays, find ways to simply reduce the risk within your scheme.   How can you protect your core plays to that defenses can’t simply take them away?

A case in point we can use is the I-35 shocker in Ames this past Friday.  While exciting, I’d hardly call a game with 8 turnovers (and countless miscues) “great”.  However, the game did provide a decent exercise in risk management for Iowa State.  Oklahoma State is one of the best teams in college football this year and truly outmatched the Cyclones in every area.  What aided Iowa State in the overtime victory wasn’t necessarily certain plays, but how their system allowed them to play within themselves and maintain their comfort zone. 

With Freshman quarterback, Jared Barnett, the Cyclone offense could keep his workload light through a minimalistic approach of moving the football.  Much like the modular approach of Noel Mazzone we’ve discussed before, the Cyclones were going to run zone and zone-read to establish their inside run game.  They protected this series through KEY (flash) and MICKEY (flash draw) on the perimeter.  The rationale is, a defense can either put 6 in the box to even up on the perimeter (put them in a better position against the flash screen) and be vulnerable to frontside zone or a backside keep.  If a defense loads the box with 7 defenders to take away your zone and zone-read game, they open themselves up to an explosive play by a free receiver on the perimeter (see the comments section of Mazzone Revisited). 

If these plays are just viewed by themselves, they aren’t all that sexy, and are quite cheap.  What is particularly interesting about this pairing and witnessing it in this game, was how ineffective they were early in the game (particularly the key screens).  Tom Herman and staff stuck to the game plan and used these plays to diagnose the appropriate response, leaving little responsibility to burden their young quarterback with.   Because they continued to stick with the formula (inside-outside-inside compliments), they were able to slow down an athletically superior defense and open them to this horizontal stretch of the field throughout the game, climaxing in the 2nd Overtime ( 3 successive inside zone runs) for the win.

Republic of Ireland on edge to Euro 2012 final as Robbie Keane score a brace to be second in Euro championship all time top scorer table.

Giovanni Trapattoni team, Republic of Ireland enjoyed 4-0 victory over 9 men Estonia in Euro 2012 play-off. Republic of Ireland are now set to take the first leg advantage to home ground and should only avoid a more than 4 goal difference lost to confirm their place in Poland and Ukraine Euro 2012 finals.

Republic of Ireland are on the edge to end the lack on big competition as their last were in 2002 World cup in Japan and Korea

Goal scoring record for national team
Robbie Keane netted a brace to rose his national team goal tally to 53. Keane also close on Hakan Suker and Jon Tomasson on all time Euro championship top scorers with 18 goals one shot to the two leading top scorers. Other two player with 18 goals are Raul Gonzales and Jan Koller.

Euro Championship all time top scorers

1	Hakar Suker	Turkey	19
2	Jon Tomasson	Denmark	19
3	Raul Gonzalez	Spain	18
4	Jan Koller	Republic Czech	18
5	Robbie Keane	Republic of Ireland	18

Goal scorers

Keith Andrews 13'

Jonathan Walters 68'

Robbie Keane 71'

Robbie Keane 88'

The Green Devils

Manchester United are used to being top of the Premier League - this time they've come joint top in the energy efficiency table which is the key measure of the UK Carbon Reduction Commitment.

Man Utd were joint top with 22 other organisations including Center Parcs and the Department for Energy and Climate change. 4,500 companies were audited in terms of their energy usage between April 2010 and March 2011. 60% of firms have installed smart meter or gained energy management accreditation. It was comical that Trafford Council came joint bottom!

The UK have some hugely ambitious targets for carbon reduction in the next 40 years and this has its pros and cons for the economy. That said, with the soaring costs of electricity / lighting if any organisation should get an energy usage survey and see how carbon reduction strategy could strengthen their business.

For many UK businesses, energy usage is very key at the moment and in football there is huge potential for energy wastage - for one, just think of the energy consumed by floodlights. In other industries, organisations have benefited/exploited the PR power that the CRC Efficiency Schem can bring - perhaps some of the other Premier League clubs will follow Manchester United's lead.

Top 5 scorers in Premier league, Spanish La Liga, France Ligue 1, Bundesliga, Scotish SPL and Serie A competition for European golden boot on 09 November 2011

Barclays Premier league, Spanish La Liga, Italy Serie A, Ligue 1, Scottish premier league, German Bundesliga and France Ligue 1 top scorers competition for golden boot on 09 November 2011. 

Barclays Premier league top scorers

1	Robin Van Persie	Arsenal FC	11
2	Edin Dzeko	Manchester City	10
3	Wayne Rooney	Manchester United	9
4	Sergio Agüero	Manchester City	9
5	Demba Ba	Newcastle	8

Robin Van Persie netted is 11th goal after 11 league games, his 29 after 28 game this year to stay a top scorer in EPL. Rafael Van der Vaart (Tottenham Hotspur)  Frank Lampard (Chelsea) are both on six goal each.

___________________________________________

Bundesliga top scorers

1	Mario Gomez	Bayern Munich	13
2	Claudio Pizarro	Werder Bremen	11
3	Klaas-Jan Huntelaar	SC Freiburg	10
4	Lukas Podolski	FC Cologne8	9
5	Papiss Demba Cisse	SC Freiburg	8

Mario Gomez is still on second position in European league top scorer tied with Cristiano Ronaldo after Lionel Messi who has 14 goals. Other goals scorers with 8 goals are Robert Lewandowski (Borussia Dortmund) and Mohammed Abdellaoue (Hannover 96).  

___________________________________________

France Ligue 1 top scorers 

1	Olivier Giroud	Montpellier	8
2	Kevin Gameriro	PSG	8
3	Batetimbi Gomis	Lyon	7
4	Anderson Nene	PSG	6
5	Alain Traoré	AJ Auxerre	6

Javier Pastore (Paris Saint-Germain) and Loïc Remy (Marseille) have also scored six goals each.
__________________________________________ 

Spanish La Liga top scorers

1	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	14
2	Cristiano Ronaldo	Real Madrid	13
3	Gonzalo Higuaín	Real Madrid	11
4	Radamel Falcao	Atletico Madrid	7
5	Roberto Soldado	Valencia	6

Lionel Messi is leading the top goal in Spanish La liga as well as European league top scorer table with Cristiano Ronaldo very close. Ronaldo scored his fourth hat-trick of the season against Osasuna and 12th at Real Madrid to stay close to Messi. Messi have five hat-trick in all competitions.
Real Madrid vs Real Zaragoza
Real Madrid vs Rayo Vallecano
Real Madrid vs Malaga
Real Madrid vs Osasuna
Fernando Llorente (Athletic Bilbao) and Karim Benzema have both scored 6 goals each and are just outside the top five list.

___________________________________________

Italy Serie A top scorers

1	Antonio Di Natale	Udinese	8
2	German Denis	Atlanta	7
3	Sebastian Giovinco	Parma	6
4	Miroslav Klose	Lazio	6
5	Zlatan Ibrahimovic	AC Milan	5

Other four goal scorers with five goals are Emanuele Calaiò (Siena) and Rodrigo Palacio (Genoa), Pablo Daniel Osvaldo (AS Roma) and Stevan Jovetic (Fiorentina)

___________________________________________ 

Scottish Premier League SPL top scorers

1	Steven John Naismith	Rangers	9
2	Nikica Jelavic	Rangers	9
3	Garry O'Connor	Hibernian	7
4	Paul Heffernan	Kilmarnock	7
5	Jon Daly	Dundee United	7

Three goals scorers just outside the top five list are Dean Shiels (Kilmarnock), Anthony Stokes (Celtic) and Gregory Tade (Inverness Caledonian Thistle) all with 5 goals each.

My weapon of choice

I feel a degree of loyalty to this machine as it was the main facilitator allowing me to get back out on a bike after breaking my knee cap … far easier than pushing a singlespeed gear everywhere and off roads where I could potter along at my own speed.

The bike is a loaner … gratefully sent to me by the kind folk at Evans Cycles just to get the Fuji name out and about.

The bike remained stock for a few months as I used it for riding and training but as racing loomed the itch to ‘spice’ it up set in and I finally started to lavish some time and money on it.

First to get replaced where the stock wheels, although clinchers are fine and good nothing beats cyclocross tubs when it comes to grip… I had a set of Zipp wheels mooching around the garage so after a friend, Rick Perry, gave them the once over and fettled any little cracks that had began to surface I had a local shop glue on a set of Tufo Cubus tubs tyres. The Cubus is an out and out mud tyre with great grip in the worst of conditions.

Once the wheels were set the brakes came next … a bargain find set of TRP Euro carbon canti’s where had when a shop misplaced the box and fittings … a set of Swiss stop yellow pads later and I had brakes that worked enough to be useful.

Drivetrain was changed as the bike had been used and abused by journos as a test bike before me so new chainrings, 46/36, and a new cassette, 12-28, were fitted along with a new chain.

My final finishing touch was to remove the not so mud friendly white bar tape and replace it with black … and for true US styling added the shotgun cartridge bar end plugs ..

So far the bike has had a few outings although with my fitness still lagging behind the bikes capability there has been no stand out races… I hope to remedy this by the new year if not before.