Are you racing Sunday?

I'm not.  But I have been asked this a few times in the past week while out on road rides.  Apparently I am now looking fast enough to be a roadie - at first glance anyway.

I attribute this to one or all of the following:
1.  The KBS Kelly Cup/BikeJam is this Sunday in Baltimore.  No, I'm not racing.  But, since I ride for the KBS club team, I can see the connection.
2.  My shoes are too clean.  I desoled my Sidis a couple weeks ago.  The new ones came in last weekend, but I actually haven't been on dirt since then, so they are still pretty black.
3.  My bike is too clean.  I know how to fix that.
4.  My bike is so shiny that they can't see the caliper brakes, top tube cabling, clearance for shouldering and mud tires, etc all of which suggest it's actually a cross bike with a roadie mask on.
5.  I'm spinning so fast that I look like I'm going fast.  Having a 12-27 cassette for cross gearing helps spin fast while not going fast.
6.  Perhaps men just like to check out women dressed in spandex and this week's Guys guides to picking up cyclist chicks says "Ask her if she's racing Sunday.  The get out the cowbells and stay for the women's race."

Meet my new ride

Apparently there is a trend this week - it seems everyone is getting new bikes.  Including me.  A new cross race bike to go with my upgrade.

Here she is:

Pretty, eh?  Yeah, there's some bling.

A preliminary weight analysis says she's almost exactly 17lbs - a weight that will change just a bit with a seatpost swap, changeover to cross tires and switching out the 34/50 chainrings for better cross gearing - 36/42.

We went out on the road yesterday for hill repeats.  She's way fast, but confusing.  Why you say?  Well, turns out that I don't have a clue how doubletap shifters work.  Especially the front one.  I think I'm getting it figured out, but that wasn't before sitting at the bottom of a hill going in circles to figure out the shift to a gear suitable for climbing and still not being sure how I achieved it. 

Definitely more shouldering clearance for cross, but the geometry for shouldering means I'll adjust my carry a bit.  This means you should look for bruises in different places this year...

As built for the geeks who care:

• Santa Cruz Stigmata aluminum frame with Alpha Q Carbon Fork
• TRP EuroX Magnesium Brakes
• SRAM Force shifters, derailleurs, and cranks
• Chris King headset, 3T Carbon Bars
• Shimano RS80 clincher wheels (these are not new but are my race wheels from last year - I know the bike is responsive - I can tell the rear wheel needs to be trued)

Love Jes and Kent at Gettysburg bikes... they even let me get in the way to "help" with the build.  I can't recommend these guys highly enough to anyone - that's where I send my mom (seriously! and probably that's a story for another day...)

Now I've just gotta live up to my ride. :-)

Muffin morning

Friday's are muffin days.  Usually a rest day or an easy day for me... I walk by the Common Ground for a muffin every Friday.  Usually Shea comes with me, the puppies get to sniff the muffin bag and confirm that my blackberry-granola muffin is in there.  He'll get some weird jalepeno bagel thing.  I usually finish most of the jinormous muffin before getting to work.  This morning I was running late and Shea wasn't along, but I was still bent on getting a muffin.  Apple.  Gotta say I like the blackberry-granola better, but I just couldn't do a multi-berry scone on muffin morning. 

Especially since next Friday won't be a muffin morning... it's Bike to Work Day!  I'll ride about 1.5 miles to the rally to show my support for commuting on skinny tires and get my free t-shirt and bagel. Then I'll spin the half mile back to work.  Probably on the singlespeed.  It's geared for mountain biking anyway.  Still, the tires are skinnier than my car.

20 miles of michaux... without the rain!

I've been riding, racing, working, training, and generally enjoying life so much lately that I haven't been blogging much.  But I promised myself when I started it that this blog isn't really about other people reading it... it's about reflecting on my experiences and races, thinking, feeling, remembering...

Last weekend was the Michaux Maximus race.  Last year, it was a mud fest.  In the rain.  Cold rain.  It was one of the two times I can ever remember considering putting my bike on the side of the trail and leaving it there.  The best and pretty much only good part of that day was rolling in and seeing that Shea had won the 10-miler overall.

This year was WAY better.  Weather was perfect - a bit misty at times, overcast, and warm.  Trails were perfect.  A great field of 9 women showed up for the 20 mile race - including a few local expert riders.  Michaux is a little different in that instead of Beginner/Sport/Expert categories, they go by distance.  There's an unspoken rule that Expert racers don't race the 10 mile race, but other than that, people do what they want. 

My goal was to ride, just ride it, finish it, ride smart in the technical sections (okay, so at Michaux that's pretty much everything except a couple miles of fire road).  I definitely wound up at race pace for most of the race, with an overall average heart rate near what I've put out at other races this year.  Even better - I finished the first 10 miles nearly an hour faster than last year and came in well under my soft goal of 4 hours, partly because they cut out a tough section at the end.

Here's the thing - it was a blast.  A total fun day. Early on, a guy was on my wheel and commented that "that 29er just takes off downhill" - I don't always do the Superfly justice, but I love gravity.  I rode with a teammate Phil for a few minutes until he crashed and then got a branch stuck all in about 5 minutes and had to slow down for a bit. I passed some guys while we were hike-a-biking uphill. I passed a few hike-a-biking while I was still riding (!). 

About 15 miles in, I found some guys, including a Winchester Wheelman or two that were happy hanging on my wheel and with my pace.  That makes me ride faster but within myself.  I was surprised to see a few of the guys I'd been back and forth with stop at the aid station about 3 miles from the finish.  I had plenty of Heed in my camelbak still and wanted to keep rolling.  Turns out it was 3 miles uphill, but all fire road - I still had a bit left in the tank when I saw the sign for the turn to the finish.  I'd been thinking I was in for some more tough singletrack.  I was thrilled to finish. 

Truly thrilled - like tears in my eyes as silly as that is.  I finished in under 3 hours to wind up in 4th!  One of the really strong riders wound up DNF'ing with a busted derailleur, so that was pretty much middle of the pack and happy with it.

I was sore for a while.  Not as sore as I am after this weekend's adventures, but definitely fatigued.