Oval ride 3/8

It was a pretty small group today (there were races in Lakewood and north of FC). We rolled out towards Masonville and then cut down through Eaton Valley to Rattlesnake. I made it over all the climbs with the leaders until Rattlesnake where Ian Holt, Brett Kirby, Paul Esposti, and Joe Saperstien dropped me. We rolled back along the same route fairly easy until we got to the back side of the HTMP climb (aka Masonville Pass). Paul set a pretty good tempo up that climb and then did the same thing on Marina Hill. I figured we'd roll turns around the reservoir into the downhill sprint but Paul just drove it all the way with me on his wheel. A couple of guys came around us on the descent and my gut reaction was to go with them but I told myself to chill and trust Paul. Coming out of the sweeping curve he jumped on them and really lit things up for me... left me with an easy 200m and I was able to hold off the rest of the group.

Oh yeah, and we say the Bustop ride out of Boulder... about 70 of them taking up a whole lane and holding each others hands while they all sat in... good job Boulder. Remember, don't ever pull through because then you might get dropped.

freehub?

Ok so I apparently have a fubar freehub. Well, not beyond all recognition... maybe just a little bit. Anyway, when I'm towards the bottom of my cassette and I coast or backpedal i get slack in the top of the chain. This is bad. I put up with stuff like this during base season because... well there's no need to coast during base season and since I've been training on a fixie I don't even coast when I brake anymore.

But now it's race season and on Sunday I'm racing at City Park which involves a lot of coasting around round-abouts so this needs to be fixed. Initial methods have failed so my plan now is to run a bunch of solvent into the freehub with the intent of dissolving all the grease in there (which has clearly thickened with time) and then oil (rather than grease) the freehub. This is not a good solution but we're talking about an $80 wheel so I don't care.

If anyone has a better idea speak up quickly before I start pouring gasoline into my free hub :-)

Of bikes...

Here's the bike I'm riding this year. It's a 5-dollar thrift-store frame with a frankenstein-esque hodge-podge of components (including a replaceable der. hanger, despite the fact that the bike was not originally fitted with one!):



Now, you're probably saying, 'uh, Phil, isn't that the same bike you rode LAST year?'

Yes. It is.

But...

THIS year, I put real pedals on it:
And a shorter stem (turns out 145mm is a bit too long for me...):

It's starting to feel a little like the old farm axe - which has had 2 new bits and half a dozen new handles over the years, but it's still the same old farm axe :) I'm still running 9 speed. My left shifter is almost as old as the frame. My bar tape is dirty and scuffed...

But it was still good enough for a top-10 finish at the Scottsdale Grand Prix last weekend, and I think there might just be another win or two in that old bike... I'm excited for this season!

The bike

So this is a bit overdue but here's the bike I'm riding this year. It's a 57cm Orbea Opal with mostly Ultegra components. I'm not normally much of a gear head but this thing is very nice. Definitely the best bike I've ever ridden. The seat tube angle is a little shallower than I like but I'm not even sure if my old geometry was UCI legal so this is fine :-)

And... count those teeth.I'm running compact cranks. 50T and 34T. A 50x11 is equivalent to a 53x11.66 so I'm not giving up much on that end. And a 34x23 is about like a 39x26 so even when I'm running the 11-23 on the back I've got a great climbing gear. For the really nasty climbing races (like Gila) I'm gonna run an 11x26 on the back which will give me a gear equivalent to a 39x30. I may still not be able to climb but at least I won't have to grind :-)

sound off

Ok, Dave Zabriskie is the man! There's a video interview on Velonews of him saying:

"Honestly, you didn't interview me because of the mustache? Then I'm gonna keep it; stay away from me... crazy people."

And in other news... former Rock Racing soigneur says Leogrande confessed to doping, then rubbed soap on his wrist before the urine sample was taken so he could use the soap to screw up the sample (VN article). OK dope control, listen up... if this allegation is even remotely true you guys need to go find a local probation officer and have them teach you proper UA technique... you gotta observe the urine exit the subject's body.

Which brings me to my next point... have we seriously come to this? Are people really racing their bikes for reasons other than seeing how far they can push themselves?

I gotta work a LOT this week so there will be very little riding for me :-(

Back from Arizona...

My second cycling trip of the year is over. Phil and I spent 10 days in Arizona. We started with Valley of the Sun stage race. I DNFed on the second stage as predicted (I wasn't supposed to start since I had been sick so getting 64 miles before dropping out was fine). We headed down to Tucson on Sunday evening and rented a couple of rooms from a school teacher for the week. We did a lot of sweet rides and got some very solid training in. No pictures on the training rides but here are some random shots...

Phil recovering.Our last day in Arizona we did a crit. I did my first cat2 only race and it felt a lot like a cat3 race... no organization and half the people riding like idiots. I rolled off the front with 5 laps to go but got caught in the last lap and finished 18th. I think I'm gonna go do the Tucson Bicycle Classic next month and see if I can beat up on those Arizona guys when I have some fitness. In other news... Phil (orange jersey, teal bike) learned to DRAFT! :-)

After driving all night I got home at 7AM. Never been so glad to see this sign

I'm racing for primes for the foreseeable future. Not because I need XXL socks and gift certificates I'll never use but because I've gotta start racing more aggressively in crits.

a general updating of things

Well I've been a terrible blogger but I'm ready to make up for it. Well ok maybe not QUITE ready because I have to go eat dinner soon but sometime in the next day there will be pictures and whatnot.

Phil and I are down in Tucson right now riding our bicycles without jackets, neck gators, skull caps or thermal booties. It's wonderful. We haven't climbed Mt Lemmon (went halfway up and realized that the aforementioned attire is required above 6,000') but we've been riding all over the place in the desert.