From the President: Your season might be over but plans are under way for 2003. There should be more new races in 2003, especially in Utah, featuring the Mountain Extreme, an off-road Ironman distance race. New for Colorado will be the Rattlesnake Tri series, of three races at the Aurora Reservoir. For details and links, check the calendar on the web at www.usat-rockymountain.org often.
The region will have many regional championships in 2003. Milkman NM will be the sprint distance championship, Loveland will be the Olympic distance championship, Louisville Ironkids will once again the the youth championship. the Collegiate championship will return in 2003 at Boyd Lake near Loveland, CO. If you areon a collegiate team, please have your team representative contact
dan@coloradomultisport.com. The season kicks off Feb. 22 in Colorado Springs with the Winter Tri. After that race, the 2002 regional ranking awards will be presented. Elections for the 2003 regional board of directors will also take place Feb. 22nd. If you are interested in running for the board, please email me, Larry Seidman at larryseidman@hotmail.com.= = = = = = = =
Did you know the one day license fee's for racing in USAT sanctioned events are going to $9 next year? Please help out the local USAT region by joining as an annual member. Did you know that's the ONLY way we fund activities in our region? Local funds are used for awards, official's clinics and uniforms, and other activities to promote triathlon/duathlon in the Rocky Mountain Region. You can renew your membership at
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Tech Tip: Do you travel often with your bike? Did you know you are at risk of stripping out the handlebar cap screws that hold the handlebar onto the stem unless you have one of the new stems with 4 bolts? There is a way you can prevent this common problem. Every time you travel, taking off the handlebars, then putting them back on at the destination weakens the aluminum threads in the stem. The bolt itself is hardened steel but the threads in the stem are not. Many accidents have been caused by this common problem. If you find the handlebars are coming loose while riding, you are on the verge of a potentially very serious problem. Either replace the stem immediately or UPGRADE it. Here's how you can salvage that stem and make it bulletproof. Using a helicoil, you actually insert stainless steel threads into a drilled out hole that reinforces the existing hole's threads. Now finding metric helicoils is the real trick to all this. We found that AAA Metric in Denver carries the entire helicoil kit with tap, threads and the works in a nice box. Cost is about $35 for everything. Get a group of friends together and split the cost and you are set for many, many excursions! You will need to know what metric size your stem uses. Just take an existing bolt into your local bike shop and they can tell you. It's probably a 5, 6 (most probable) or 7mm bolt but check it first. Happy travels!
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Classifieds. We'd like to start a classifieds section so send any thing Tri/Du related that you want to sell and we'll post it in the next newsletter. Just send the info to
usatrockymtn@yahoo.com Also, we'll post a training group section. If your club is interested in new members, send that information along as well. Please forward this newsletter to any Tri friends you have and ask them to join the email group at www.groups.yahoo.com. They should sign up for the group USATRockyMTN@yahoogroups.com Happy New Year and take that base training slow and easy. - Editor