Cancellara is studly

What an impressive win:

1st Mountain Bike Trail Ride on new mntn bike

theBest and Worst of my First new mountain bike ride, on new bike, and first ride at all this year (FINALLY)! 3)the Best: Those quick steep uphill spurts when you grind up the Glutes and can be Queen of the Hill at the top for those few quick seconds! 3)the Worst: Those quick steep angled slopes that approach you and just say 'Are you kidding?'. 2)the Best: Falling the best way possible, remembering it in 3 simple steps as if in slow mo..."now this is happening...now I will do this..". 2)the Worst: Dead pine needles stuck inyour spandex like a porcupine after falling on the "Easy" path. And 1) the Best: The wide, open fields where you can see forever all at once, including the red wig and mannequin parts right where a bike spill would really be funny. 1) the Worst: Having to pass that same spot again the opposite way because you can't find the way out. This was a fun experience overall. Wrists a little tender, I have new appreciation for this! Trivia: In the Tour De France, how many switchbacks does the infamous L'Alpe d'Huez have? A:21 I enjoyed the skill requirements at Tranquility for these both left and right!

Speed Queen

Out with the old!

So, my trusty old Cervelo is toast. I spent many a suffering hour on that sled. It served me well. But the time has come to upgrade. I sold the Cervelo to Ben out in west O, who wants to start doing triathlons.

Blaine, our shop's mechanical genius and the Midwest's best, is currently assembling a 2008 Orbea Ora for me. Sleek black and white scheme all in carbon. We're building it up with all Campy components, as it would be heresy to put on japcrap. The only non-Campy components are the brake levers, since Campy doesn't make any. I forked over a little extra dinero and bought some SRAM 900 TT levers, all carbon and super light at 99 grams.

With a little luck, I stumbled into a sweet deal on some aero wheels. I bought some brand new Easton EC90 TT wheels down at Bike Pedaler's in Lincoln. Thanks to Sean and Jason for treating me right on those gems. I promised them I'd bring Fred down and we'd do some of their Tuesday night TT training rides.

Not sure what the total weight of the beastie will be when all done. Certainly less than the 21+ lbs. that the Cervelo weighed. I'm hoping 18 lbs or less. Combine that with great aero wheels and I hope to fly down the TT road this year. Of course, I'll need the motor to be all tuned up to make the Ora gold. Uh, can you say sufferfest?

Let the party begin. More story to follow when Blaine calls to tell me the Rocket is Ready.

El Guapo

Saturday night's all right for sprinting!

A snappy outfit garners El Guapo style points

during the GoldSprints event at Bike Way!

Yo,

Some club members (Fred, Gene, Glenn, Andy, El Guapo) came to the Bike Way on Saturday for the initial GoldSprint indoor bike racing. This was an interesting experience and might not be my bag. I matched up against Aaron in the opening match, thanks to Fred for signing me up.

They said it was a 100 yd sprint, racing against each other on the bike and seeing the progress on the big screen computer. Something was screwed up tho, and we ended up doing the 800 yard race. So, I blew up thinking I only had a 100 yard race. We later raced again and Aaron dusted me. Good thing tho, I think getting eliminated early meant I didn't blow chunks like many racers did later. They had big yellow 5 gallon buckets next to each bike to hurl into.

Andy, Glenn and Gene all did well. Fred and I got tossed early, mostly cuz our feet unclipped during the race. Give it a try!