New toys

Tonight is catch up night. I have a few subjects to catch up on, starting with my new toys attached to my Madone. I mean, these are all investments in my health.

Here is version 2009 of my 2006 Madone.

Check out the new wheels baby! Williams cycling, our race team's new sponsor for 2009, allowed me to get a killer deal on these beautiful 1596g full carbon sweet wheels.

I probably have less than 100 miles on these wheels. So far they are smooth as silk, quick, and full of potential. I truly can't wait for April 11th's Tour of the Depot to truly put them to the test. I am one excited old fart to go racing.

You may also notice the very large hub on the rear wheel, commonly known as a PowerTap Pro+. Yeah this is definitely an investment in my health in a seriously scientific way. I can now immediately see my power output and review heart rate, speed, power, cadence, and more when I get to a PC. Quite interesting data to analyze actually. Works perfectly with my Garmin 705, although interestingly the software can download power data but not display it. I get to download the data using Garmin's Training Center, save the ride data as a tcx file, and import into PowerAgent for power analysis.

During my TT bike testing I realized there was quite a bit of a weight penalty for using mountain bike pedals even though I had some XTR level pedals. Therefore I found a good deal on the new much lighter Look Keo Sprint road pedals weighing in at 328g including cleats and screws. My previous pedals are over 400g without cleats or screws. The XTR pedals are now upgrades on my mountain bike.

It was time for drive train maintenance as well. Time for an upgrade to a 53 from a 52 up front and a 11-23 in the rear to gain some top end.

And lastly the relatively new saddle saving another few hundred grams. I really have two different saddles because the Prologo choice saddle has interchangeable covers. The one displayed is softer for longer distances.

LET'S RACE!!!