So I haven't posted in a while and kinda been scarce all around. Brady, I'm sorry I didn't get back to you about riding Saturday. I was on a cleaning frenzy (since that's about all I can do that's constructive when on call) that lasted well into the afternoon. I didn't even check my blog or pick up my phone till Saturday evening. I didn't really want to face that wind again anyway.
Sunday's races were fun. I was practice officiating and found it quite challenging. Well, the cat 4/5/womens/juniors race at least. With 28 people whizzing by on different laps with fitness levels spanning the rainbow, it was difficult to keep track of finishing order. Luckily, the very experienced and wise teacher, Neil Weide, got most everything down for us. But it was still fun.
Some more interesting news. After I just put a link to the Lemond bikes website(among other team/bike/sponsor sites), I find this out. I have a Lemond Zurich bike on order that is taking a while, I think. The order did get faxed by the soon-to-be-missed Matt N right before the Trek Store US-wide super sale, March 27th - 30th, so I'm sure all the stores and the company as a whole are recovering from that. If there is any issue at all with me not getting the bike, I'd be perfectly fine with that. I'm stretching the budget and selling current stuff to make this carbon framed beauty happen, but I don't really really need it. So if I find out that they aren't going to take all my money, I'm ok with that. But, my guess is this is my last chance at ever owning a carbon bike. If it happens, I sure hope it's worth all the hype. If not, I'm going completely luddite. Steel frame, either down-tube or bar-end shifters, and 32-spoke wheels. I've been eying this frame/fork for a while and wish I would have seen it before I got my Bianchi. Especially after my successful venture with this product. The Reelight setup has been on my racing machine for a couple weeks now and I'm very impressed with it. On the Bike Master's Century, Doug was in the follow vehicle and mentioned that my rear blinky was as bright or brighter than all the others. I never have to think about batteries or even turning them on. They just work all the time I'm riding and are just about all I need for road riding. I do wish that the front light could mount up on the handlebar and have an option for constant light instead of blinking. I'm hoping the company will explore this possibility. Have your bike shop order you a set through J&B Importers. It's a little pricey, but well worth it to have extra safety that you don't ever have to think about.
This weekend is the Spring Cycling Classic in Lincoln. Come one, come all and enjoy the bountiful sunshine and mild conditions. Oh wait, it's gonna be 30-40, windy, and possibly still raining in the morning. Real recent forecasts have the rain/snow ending early Saturday morning, like before sunrise. So hopefully that will pan out for you courageous racers out there. I will be helping with registration, then following a group with a truck full-o-wheels. Should be good times. If you are racing, keep this mantra in mind. (Warning, harsh lingo in said mantra.)
Riding has been a little scarce recently, just like my posting. I work from 11:30am - 8:30pm Mon - Thurs this month, so it's hard to get up early, eat food, then get excited about riding alone for a couple/few hours THEN going into work. Much depression shall ensue this month. So if anyone has some hours free in the morning and wants to help motivate me to get outside, let me know. Otherwise, I'll see ya'lls on the weekends.
8 comments:
If you're looking for someone to berate or shame you into riding in the mornings, I'll gladly post my daily schedule, which will make you feel thankful for several free hours in the morning.
Oh, and I have that wristband. It's sufficient reminder to keep working hard, or the guy who keeps going when you stop will beat you.
Mike
I haven't heard anything yet about what they are going to do with bikes that are backordered and ep'ed for people. Hopefully that will come out in the next few days. This hit pretty hard, so the aftermath should be fun.
Thanks much, Matt, for the update. I kinda figured this was going to wreak havoc on early season orders. Like I said, either way is fine by me. However, if they tell you it's going to be more than a month before it can be shipped, then please kindly cancel the order. I'll let someone else bug their LBS daily and drive the employees crazy. I really appreciate all you have and continue to do for me and my teammates.
Bryan, please, no more reasons to feel bad about being lazy. I would have gone crazy a long time ago if I had your schedule. If I was racing a lot this year, it'd be way different. But I'm just riding when I can and having fun with it.
wait -- your last chance at ever owning a carbon bike? That's sad. You're not even that old. I'm sure in the future carbon bikes will be purchased at Wal-Mart, cost $200 and have Dura-Ace 10-speed.
Of course, the current standard will be 14-speed Dura-Ace electric, with probably something like carbon-reinforced scandium or something.
Scandium ... please. That is so this century. More like Kryptodihydrium-erate. Gees.
I've got my preorder in for one of
these.
No problem on Saturday. I took the P2sl out for a battle into the nasty southern wind. While my goal was to go to Plattsmouth, I only managed to get a little past Criss sp? lakes before getting interrupted by the on-call pager. That required a 20 minute break to troubleshoot a production issue from work. Then I was running out of time, so I decided to turn my dead legs back home. Fortunately, the wind was now to my back, allowing me to post a new personal all time high speed of 47mph going downhill on 25th St. I was cooking. What's crazy was that the wind speed was 30mph with 38mph gusts, so I barely felt any of wind at all. The remainder of the ride home required little effort to maintain upper 20s/30mph on the Keystone. Ah, 90 minutes of hard work so quickly spent in pleasure on the way back. In the end, well worth it.
While I see where you're heading with the Salsa Casserole, to say that the door is closing on a carbon bike is a bit premature if you ask me. Maybe for now. Bryan maybe right about the Wal-mart thingy, too. Lemond's brilliant marketing strategy may result in Wallyworld selling that Zurich you ordered a few years down the road...
Mike
I have been at Ft MCCOY WI for the last couple of weeks. NO riding here but I will be back and I can ride 7-10 or so every morning. I would enjoy getting the local knowledge of where to ride.
Hey! I blog sometimes.
And I have one of those wristbands too. One time my 10-yr old cousin read it, and now I have to take it off and put it in my pocket when I go over there.
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