And the winner is.....

Earlier this week, multiple time Ironman champion, Chris Lieto, flew in to Boulder to work on his bike fit with Todd Carver. The two days he was in town were downright nasty with outside temps never above single digits. As you can see, that doesn't stop us Boulderites from swimming...outdoors.

By coincidence, Dave Scott was at the pool just finishing the noon master's practice, so he challenged Lieto with a set of 20x100's on 1:20. I think Lieto was sucking the thin air but still put the hurt to The Man. However, The Man, even when behind, is always smack talking and after the set, the challenge was a 50-meter sprint race. We should probably set up a poll to let you determine who wins...

Tim DeBoom - the movie

Two-time Ironman World Champion Tim DeBoom shows off his Ducati riding skills in Retül's newest video

You've been Retül'd

VeloNews ad rep David Walker, went to sleep peacefully last night but forgot to take his new cyclocross bike off the roof rack. That could only mean one thing...prank time!

What Causes Some Sports to be Caucasion'ized'?

So I'm up for a few days getaway in the beautiful Colorado Mountains. Steamboat Springs to be exact, where I'm doing a few turns and spending time with the Boss. A lot of times when I get up in the altitude to play (as so many Coloradans do), I find that nature brings me into deep thought. Today I'm exiting the Gondola right around prime time in the morning; meaning there are people freakin' everywhere trying to get their gear right for the first run of the day. As I took in the moment and scanned the excited groups of color matched ski gear'd folks, most of them on vacation with friends and family, I noticed that everyone was.....well.....white. I rode off down the hill trying to rock out to my 80's tunes through my sweet ipod jack-equipped helmet from Giro, but I couldn't stop looking at every person I passed, every snow lover at every lift line, every person scarfing down resort food at the lunch tables in crowded lodges and hillside bars, to see if they were of any other color other than... white. Not really. The rest of the day I realized that skiing is in fact a white mans sport. I mean I did see 2 Asian snowboarders (one who ripped by the way), but everyone else....I mean everyone else was of the Caucasion origin. It made me start to think about the other sports that I have been invoved in...like triathlon and cycling. Same kind of thing. I mean I have certainly seen David Goggins (a very fit black triathlete) ripping the Ironman course and I can recall several other African American Professional Cyclists....but look at the UCI Pro Peleton - most participants are white dudes. Most triathlons that I have seen contain mostly white people. Most professionals who play hockey in the NHL are kind of pasty. This leads me to the question: "What causes some sports to become dominated by certain races?" I'm sure there is an answer....but it strikes me as kind of a strange thing in the aforementioned sports. Dunkin

it's saddle time

we do our best to live and breathe what we preach, which means getting out there and mixing it up on the riding scene whenever possible. for one of us "riding time" means taking the cover of the Ducati "super bike" and hitting the open road but you'll be able to find the rest of us riding the skinny or knobby tires when the temps get over freezing. this weekend, it's looking to be in the 50's which is balmy for us here in Colorado. in the dead of winter, the roads and cycling paths will be just as busy as during the middle of the summer with all of us weekend warriors. pick your poison, but get out and play this weekend!

Bicycle Industry Bullies

OFFICIAL STORY

The Trek u-23 Elite Cycling Team, funded by Lance Armstrong and his Mellow Johnnys Bike Shop in Austin, Texas are now ready to roll. Kevin Livingston, who runs the Pedal Hard Center within Mellow Johnnys uses Retul on a daily basis to provide pinpoint accuracy with the riders' bike position. Recently Kevin Retul'd the young Trek u-23 squad, including upcoming cycling powerhouse Taylor Phinney.

While Retul was recently selected by another highly successful Pro Tour team, we were blocked by their well known and threatening bike manufacturer sponsor, who has attempted to place their own fit system in the marketplace and apparently doesn't like Retul moving in on their turf......

Remember "Good will always CRUSH Evil".

World Champions in Retul Studios

Here is my first blog. I guess I am a blogger now. I found it much easier to type with stimulus, so i drank a bunch of dunkin donuts coffee and then started typing. As a sidenote, I have ADHD really bad and tend to sway wildly off topic, which is why Retul doesnt let me write anything.....until now. Until Lars made this blog. Now suddenly I am tough with words and can hide behind my new alias; Dunkin

Multisport World Champions are in a very special class. To post the overall fastest swim, bike, and run time of a world championship event takes a calculated effort but also a willingness to dig deeper and hurt more than your fellow competitors that day. It takes tremendous focus to tune out the screaming fans, false splits, blazing sun and blistering heat, tiring legs and wandering thoughts all while maintaining enough nutrition to stay in high gear and at full throttle. When you have cracked the title of best in the world once – you have a fairly good chance of doing it a second time (if you can stay healthy). Peter Reid, Tim Deboom, Normann Stadler, Natascha Badmann, Chrissie Wellington and soon to be Craig Alexander are living proof at the Ironman level.

Everybody comes to the World Championships in prime form (i.e. they have done their training, put in the workouts, etc), but not everyone is optimized to perform at their best. Those who consistently find themselves on the podium and within striking distance of a win generally know the secret formula of a balanced attack: That is, when to keep their speed in check and when to push it to the brink of combustion. It is this knowledge and attention to small details in their preparation, like getting a proper bike fit, that make such a BIG difference on race day.

At Retul Studios, our bike fit experts optimize cyclists positions on their rides all day, every day (ok we are closed on Sunday – it’s the Sabbath for crying out loud!!). Fitter, Todd Carver uses state-of-the-art, 3D motion capture technology to capture every moving part of a rider while pedaling at different efforts and then high level mathematics and software to determine an optimal riding position on your existing bike or an ideal new bicycle frame, matched perfectly for your body. While we have had 6 World Champion multisport athletes come to Retul studios in the past 12 months for their Retul bike fits, most of our clients are amateur cyclists who just want to ride with maximum comfort (and faster than their buddy too).

Retul Studios, opened first studio in Dec 2007, and has been visited by some of the world best athletes, including 6 who can decorate their uniforms with rainbow stripes, signifying World Champion
status:

Craig Alexander - Ironman World Champion 08
- Ironman 70.3 World Champion 07


Tim DeBoom – 2 x Ironman World Champion

Normann Stadler – 2 x Ironman World Champion

Leon Griffin – Duathlon World Champion

Samantha McGlone – Ironman 70.3 World Champion 06

Joanna Zeiger - Ironman 70.3 World Champion 08

While some of us (ok me) are certainly triathlon fans around these parts, the heart and soul of our company (two owners) are actually road and mountain bike dudes. Todd Carver has hefty bike fit optimization experience with some of the worlds best road cyclists, including the entire Garmin Chipotle team and also tends to attract all of his top ranked CO-Motion Mtn Bike teamates in for bike fits at the Retul Studios Denver. Retul inventor Cliff Simms will run away and sleep with a mtn bike manufacturer if given a chance, so we don't let him out of the Retul TSL (Top Secret Labroatory) in Boulder much or at least without a GPS gorilla-glued onto his old-skool Klein
mountain beast.

Anyway... these are my closing statements your honor

Cyclists who put in significant miles during training, whether for a World Championships or for personal fitness, need to realize the importance of a good bike fit. Being able to ride with the maximum power for the longest distance while maintaining a comfortable biomechanically sound body position on the bicycle will not come easy with guesswork. Visit the Retul Studios and leave with an optimized bike fit, a blueprint for your exact bicycle set-up, and a guarantee you will be happy with our services. If you are in the market for a new bicycle, Retul can help there as well. Check it out at http://www.retul.com/retul-studios.asp

the chase

There is never a dull day here at the Retül studios. In just over our first year in business, our head bike fitter, Todd Carver, has fit six world champion triathletes and the Garmin Slipstream cycling team. We hope to share some off-the-cuff moments we have with these athletes when they come into our studio, to show you a lighter side of professional sports.

Our business plan in 2009 is to launch a retail location in Denver, Colorado. We just received our first shipment of Guru's and yesterday spoke to the owner and frame manufacturer of Elite Bicycles, David Greenfield, about our order of bikes coming in from him.

One of the reasons we love Greenfield and Elite Bicycles is for their nationwide reputation for their five-star customer service. We experienced this first hand while talking on the phone with Greenfield yesterday.

While on the phone, Greenfield began huffing and puffing and was noticeably out of breath. He mentioned he was outside of his shop and spotted a bike that had been reported as stolen from one of his Elite customers from pre-Christmas. Greenfield said he would call us back and we learned later he had chased down the thief and cornered him until the police showed up and confiscated his customer's bike to return to the rightful owner. I asked him why he went after the thief and he said that bike was owned by "one of his Elite family members". That is the reason I have owned three Elites since I started racing road cycling and triathlon, why my wife races triathlon on Elite, and why we decided to carry Elite as one of our bike lines here at our Retül Denver Studio.

We hope you'll bookmark this blog and follow it regularly as we continue fitting professional athletes and launch our new Retül retail location.

Cheers,
Retül geeks