It’s official…Team Mike’s Bikes p/b Incase (TMB) is excited to announce that locally based Equator Coffee & Teas (http://www.equatorcoffees.com) is the team’s newest sponsor. We’ve been looking for a coffee company that believed in what we are trying to accomplish and wanted to come on board and help make it happen. We are thrilled to have found Equator Coffee & Teas.

Equator is a San Rafael based company co-founded in 1995 by Helen Russell and Brooke McDonnell. They have earned an outstanding reputation as purveyors and roasters who provide distinctive specialty coffees and rare teas at competitive prices, with unparallelled customer service. Their mission is to continue to be a growing customer-centric company, dedicated to quality, environmental sustainability and social responsibility. Their commitment is to procure distinctive coffees from growers who practice responsible land stewardship and bio friendly farming techniques. This commitment has won over renowned chefs like Thomas Keller (French Laundry, Bouchon Restaurants & Bakeries), Traci Des Jardins (Jardiniere), Elizabeth Faulker (Citizen Cake) and Pascal Rigo (Bay Bread). Read more

Team Mike’s Bikes is fortunate to use a great hydration product – Osmo.  Osmo Active Hydration brings together proven science and common sense – a sports drink’s primary function should be to hydrate. Osmo Pre-Load supplements even the best in-competition hydration plans to improve performance on the hottest days and in the toughest efforts. Just ask Peter Sagan.

But this post isn’t about Osmo or the latest sports science on hydration. At the end of the day, one thing about hydration is universally accepted – if you lose your bottles during a race, what’s in them doesn’t really matter.

Enter the water bottle cage – the unsung hero of hydration.

What matters most about a water bottle cage? First and foremost, your bottle needs to stay in it. In three years of racing, when the roads have gotten rough – and we certainly have our share of those in Nor Cal – TMB bottles have stayed put. From Madera, to Copperopolis, to Challenge, when rough roads jettison bottles left and right, ours have stayed securely in our BikeSmart HydroCarbon 4 Carbon Fiber Bottle Cages.

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TMB p/b Incase wishes Daniel Holloway all the best in his well deserved return to the pro peloton. We couldn’t have asked for a better teammate this year, both on and off the bike. From the valuable advice on the road, great wins, to the bear meat for the Bolognese sauce at team camp – thank you. Read more about what’s next for Daniel in CyclingNews and on his blog.

Memorial Day is a special day in many ways for many Americans.  I’ve been spending my Memorial days in previous years by racing my bike in Morgan Hill at an industrial park area. Others spend their day barbecuing or remembering all of our soldiers that fight for us today and for the past hundreds of years for our freedom and protection from the rest of the world. I want to give a quick shout out to any and all families and cyclists that has been in the military and on behalf of the entire nation of our great nation, we thank you for your service!!! Read more