Fayetteville Stage Race

The Fayetteville Stage Race has been my nemesis. It consist of a road stage on Saturday morning, a short rolling TT Saturday afternoon and then another road race Sunday morning. It should be a good race for me since I TT well but it has always had my number. The first year I did it I had a bad TT on the short rolling course and then broke a spoke on the 3rd stage and DNF. I missed the following year and then last year the Saturday road race was epic. It started out fogging and in the upper 50s/low 60s about a quarter of the way through I double flatted and was chasing after that. Then a cold front hit and the winds picked up, it started raining and hailing, and the temperature dropped into the 40s. By the end of the race I was down and almost hypothermic. I did the TT and finished 10th but my body was wrecked so I went home and DNF'd again.

This year I was determined to finish. Saturday started with a 68 mile road race. It was a fairly smooth race but was fast as we finished in 3 hours flat. The last hour of the race I could feel cramps coming on and in the finishing sprint my legs completely locked up and I barely made it over the finish line but had a group finish. I spent the rest of the day trying to hydrate and get my body ready for the TT.

I started off on the TT which was the first race on the Kestrel but it felt extremely hard and I was definitely slow. Quickly my 30 second guy caught me, then another guy, and another guy. I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get any speed and figured it was the cramps from the morning. I finally rolled in a miserable 4 1/2 minutes behind the winner. Getting back to the car I realized my rear wheel has slipped in the drop outs and was rubbing on the brake the entire TT. It was frustrating to have more bad luck but encouraging to know at least I didn't suck that bad.

Sunday was a 65 mile road race and it was brutally fast from the start. It was also windy and the field was quickly strung out and guys were dropping out after the 1st of 4 laps. Half way through the 2nd lap I couldn't stay with it any more and came off. I managed to find 3 other guys and even though we were slow the second half of the race we still managed to finish in 3 hours. I was happy to finish even if it was 40th out of about 65 riders. I have finally finished Fayetteville and maybe next year everything will finally fall in place.

Goings On....

So there hasn't been much to report on the racing front but its not because I haven't been, uh, going to races. A week ago I was coming off the worst allergies I have had this year right before Lago Vista. It was the 20th anniversary of the race so they ran it backwards which meant you went up the steep side and down the gentle side. Unfortunately it was a weird/bad day that culminated in the first asthma attack I have had in 4 years and pulling out after just 2 laps. My next race experience was at the Cronometro TT which is a prep TT for Fayetteville. It was a comedy of errors that included missing my start time and learning to always race prep your bike to make sure its ready before you go to the race.

In spite of all this I have had good sessions on the trainer and I've been staying busy. After about a year with SRM and no complaints whatsoever, I started looking at other options. The new TT bike I have has a BB30 bottom bracket that I was using adapters on to run the SRM but it didn't feel like it was working as smoothly as I would like. Also, I want to buy a new road bike frame next year but the frame I want won't work my version of the SRM. This presented 2 options, upgrade to wireless SRMs (very expensive, both initial cost and maintenance but it's the gold standard for power meters) or the wireless Quarq Cinqo (half the cost, easier and cheaper to maintain, and developing an excellent reputation). I went with the Quarq Cinqo because of the price, the ability to use it as a true BB30 but still have the flexibility to switch cheaply in the future, and ease of maintenance. I also went back to a Garmin Edge 500 for the computer versus the old SRM PCV. The Garmin doesn't have as big a display as the SRM but it provides a lot more functionality, a more customizable display, and easier interface so it has been nice having it back.

Quarq Cinqo (sorry for the bad iPhone photos)

My other project was taming the insanity that was the garage. There were plastic tubs and a chaos of bike parts and tools. Any activity meant moving stuff around to get to what I needed and lots of searching for the tools amidst the mess. I finally went out and decided to try my hand at some DIY garage organization. I bought some lumber and built a shelf/work bench along with some peg board and organized my bike area. It worked out well and opened up a large area around the bikes so that I can now easily get on the trainer or set up the bike stand and work on the bikes without moving anything or taking the car out of the garage.

All this stuff now fits in such a small area and its so easy to find!!!

NAHBS Austin 2011

So the North American Handmade Bike Show was in Austin this year. I have seen the coverage of this event in years past and practically drooled over the pictures so when I found out it was going to be in Austin this year I was ecstatic. It was the closest thing I have experienced that embodies the "kid in a candy store" feeling.

Here are some of my favorites from the show. A link to all my photos (I'm not a great photographer so it is what it is) is here.

Meeting the legend himself, Dario Pegoretti

The coolest cycling shoes I have ever seen.....

My ultimate Ti bike, a Moots...

My dream road bike, a Pegoretti Responsorium

Vanilla cyclocross..... drool.....

Vanilla track bike

Vanilla single speed cyclocross....

Boo Bikes carbon and bamboo cyclocross bike