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Kit Cischke's Journal
Le Tour et al.
posted by KitC at 03:27 AM on June 29, 2009
Had a pretty light week, mostly off the bike. I've only been out for one fun trail ride and one hard road ride since the Chain Drive. The road ride was just fun, but the ride on the mountain bike was a little rough. I spent the whole ride on the most technical stuff at the Tech Trails. It had rained overnight and even though I was riding almost 24 hours after the rain, the roots and rocks were still quite wet... and they were given the Fast Traks absolute fits. I ended up hugging a sapling after the front tire slipped off a rock and missed a bridge. (At that point, the front brake caliper had totally locked up and I was surrounded by a swarm of mosquitos. I ran the bike for a while to escape the swarm and managed to get the wheel spinning free before donating too much blood.)
Just a couple of weeks until the next race: The Miner's Revenge. It's not a real important race in my schedule, but it's new and local. I wanted to support the new race because I think it has the potential to bring money to the area and it sounds like fun. I also wanted to try a bit of an experiment. I signed up for the short race (only 10 miles) and want to just gas it the whole way. I want to line up near the front and just give 100% from the word "go". I know I could handle the longer race, but want to see how I place with this strategy.
I found out that the zip-tied rear derailleur cable isn't an ideal solution. It won't keep the cable from shifting fore-to-aft on the bike, and it rubs against the head tube quite badly. We ordered some Jagwire Stick-On Cable Guides to try to alleviate the problem. I'll report back on how they work.
I got some new pads for my helmet. I was starting to worry that it wasn't fitting well enough to be safe, but replacing the pads fixed it perfectly. An $8 fix, instead of a $80 fix (in the form of a new helmet). Also picked up the first of the two race tires for the Copperman Triathlon. Realizing that I'm not really going to be doing a lot of road racing, I just picked up the $30 Bontrager Race Lites. I had been really happy with the Bontrager Jones CXR tires I ran during 'cross season so I thought I'd give these a try. I really wanted to ge the Race X Lites, but couldn't justify the extra $15 per tire to shave off a whopping 10g per wheel and for 120 tpi instead of 60 tpi.
I'm hugely excited for the Tour de France, but a little worried about all the drama. I hate reading about internal conflicts within Astana. I hate reading that now Garmin/Slipstream lacks confidence in Christian Vandevelde so they're "covering all the bases", according to CyclingNews.com. I hate reading Chris Horner talking about the politics of Tour rider selection. I'm ready for the drama to play out on the bikes instead of articles and interviews. I am also looking forward to seeing just how strong Armstrong is. (As I was writing this, one of the newest Armstrong-Nike commericials came on. Very powerful.) Ideally, I would like to see Armstrong win the stage up the Ventoux and otherwise play super-domestique to Contador. I wouldn't rule out a podium if it works out.
In the way of just a couple gear-related things, I'm still really happy with my inForm RL saddle. After racing the Chain Drive only with Camelbak Podium bottles, and frankly don't see a reason why anybody would use anything else. They are perfect for mountain biking. Honey Stinger energy chews are good, but the cherry flavor tastes like cough syrup. On the other hand, the Fruit Smoothie flavors are quite good. I think I'll stick with my Clif Shot Bloks though.
I've been at this for a while now, so it's time to sign off. Looking forward to some Livestrong and Argyle action in the coming days, and for getting myself back on the bike.
categories: General
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