Monday, March 29, 2010

Carbon this, carbon that.

My Superfly stable, part 1.
So on the mountain bike side I am very spoiled this year. This Gary Fisher Superfly is all decked out in Bontrager and Sram parts. I have a nice new Reba to throw on this (controlled by my Cane Creek headset), but can you believe this is not the bike I am most excited about this year?

The first ride is today. This will be the bike attempting to defend last year's Ragnarok win and conquer my Transiowa demons (thus the rigid fork). The bull horns are attached just inside the grips and are just an experiment at the moment. Tires will be swapped out for the race as well.

I have to remind myself that the cross bike fell on it's sword to help make this possible along with the support from the Gary Fisher 29er Crew. I have been on 2 group road rides this year on the well worn "heavy" winter bike.

Group rides on the mountain bike sure made things interesting this last weekend in WI when I attended the "Drop the Doc" ride in Dousman. Two hard hours with the group, one hour mostly at the front with another rider on the way to "Transition", and an hour back to Dousman. That last hour was spent eating and riding slower as the lack of calories had their way of making themselves apparent. Four hours of tough.

I think I am riding well, but time will tell. One thing I do know is you are being extremely unproductive at a time that you are being paid to work.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

You gotta let it be known when your coming around. I was up at 7 am Saturday and stepped outside to say bye bye cold and hello to nighttime trainer hours as I either ride early or late...You being there would have been a little motivation to suffer out the cold.

Charly Tri said...

Sorry about that. I debated about contacting you, but in the end I just figured either way it wouldn't effect you showing up. Well, I guess I was wrong; a first!

Because of the cold it was definitely the smallest group I had seen there, maybe 15-20? I pulled up on the mountain bike, old 80's tights, and a big camelback. No one said a word to me until another rider and I crested the "big" hill with a decent gap early in the ride. All of a sudden I was getting all sorts of people talking to me with veiled questions trying to figure who the heck I was. I thought it would have been funny if you showed on the mtb as well.

And seriously, you rode the trainer instead of getting out?

jp said...

Sooo, let me get this straight. A group of road guys let you sit on the front of a "road" ride for 1 hour? Why, would you/they do that?? Easy day? Or those manly thighs were dishing out severe pain, and everyone was crying UNCLE? I'm at a loss; is this a fairly tale?

Charly Tri said...

Mr. JP,

That hour is a more relaxed pace as the drop the doc ride is the hard ride and they drop the pace down to and from a separate meeting pace (transition).