Adventures on the way to Vancouver

- Drive to Bend, Oregon. Long drive, similar to other drives in and out of the deserts.

- Trek mountain bike demo. Rode the killer Fuel Ex 9.9 and Gary Fisher HiFi Pro. Gorgeous forest trails. Could spend many days in Bend.

- Spend the night north of Bend, Oregon. At one point I decided to turn on a skinny logging road which climbed steeply for what felt like forever. We were committed as there was nowhere to turn around. We finally came up to a dirt road, decided to back into the dirt road to turn around and go back down, then, well, just stayed there at the top of the world. Beautiful scenery, extremely dense forest, not one person all night.

- Ride in Tacoma, Washington. This began as a lovely ride on the shorelines of Dash Point down to the Port of Tacoma where I came upon a bridge with a metal grated surface. Not interested in riding on that, so I'll just hop up to the sidewalk and cause myself a pinch flat. Duh. Repair flat, get going again and find myself on the road we had previously been with the coolest - ok, maybe the most ominous - road sign I have seen: 25% grade! I HAVE to try that!

Half way up the grade my chain breaks. This isn't fun anymore. Two mechanicals in just a few miles means it's time to head back. On the way back I find myself at the end of a road with a "right turn only" sign, follow that road for awhile, realize it is following a river and there is no way to cross it for a few miles, look on my GPS and find no reasonable way to cross it for quite awhile, and decide to turn around.

Now it's really time to get back...so I get to a point where I can retrace my steps and find I rode on a one-way street on the way there. K, I'll just ride the wrong way on this one-way road for a moment and cross the first chance I get. That was nerve-racking. Mental note: don't do that again.

The climb back to Dash Point was awesome. The ride turned out good although very urban.

- Space needle in Seattle, Washington. Cool views, misleading parking lot owned by crooks (Impark) that feel they need a few hundred dollars for me to park my rv. Wrong.

- Border crossing. The most dreaded part of the trip. Took 5 minutes. We were nervous for no reason.

- Vancouver! More stories to come.

Time trial analysis

I am excited about time trials because they are all about consistency and improvements are easy to see. Even though I ended up near last place at the High Uintas time trial I think the numbers look pretty good and they show improvements over Tour of the Depot.

I like the overall picture due to the consistent heart rate, cadence, and power. I read that the idea is to finish stronger than start. I feel the graphs show a stronger finish, granted the second half of the course is easier.

My average power is up from my Tour of the Depot results as well, meaning I can produce more power for a sustained period of timme. This is good.

I achieved more power with a lower heart rate. Awesome. I am throwing away the 210-244 bpm values because my true max is 202.

Stage race #2: High Uintas Classic

Weather was iffy coming in to the weekend. It unfortunately turned bad at the worst time for Cat 4 and Cat 5 groups as they got pummelled by sheets of cold rain and sleet near the top of the climb at 10,700 feet. At 37 degrees farenheight.

I quit the road race after 32 miles. I accomplished the climb, stopped for winter gear, started downhill, felt good for a mile or so, then everything suddenly got extremely cold. Why continue? I couldn't come up with a reason to continue. This was just stupid.

Here's what did it: after a few minutes of crazy fast downhill in ridiculously cold and hard rain, I see a road sign: "Evanston 48". The end.

That sign did it. I am *NOT* riding 48 more miles in this shit. I am...oh, there's Vanessa. She rocks. Let me in the car.

A DNF (did not finish) in a stage race means you go home. You cannot continue racing as you cannot compete for the win and may adversely affect the outcome of the race. But I had paid the $ and the weather was so bad that many people did not finish so I asked if I could race on Sunday. After much deliberation from the officials and sponsors the decision was made to allow us to race Sunday. Evanston needs the $.

Sunday's 10 mile time trial went well enough; I improved from the previous time trial and haven't really trained for this discipline yet. The criterium was a good workout as well even though I got destroyed by the group and only stuck to the pack for 1/2 the race. Someone took this picture of the criterium and I happen to be in it. I wish the whole thing remained as easy as it looks in this picture.

STOLEN: 1998 Trek Y22 mountain bike

Stolen in Draper, UT this afternoon between 13:30 and 18:10. If you see this bike please notify me by commenting on this post.

Wish

Here's one of those lifetime things. I wish to ride Alpe D'Huez sometime in my life. I spent a few minutes during lunch looking for a cool picture to use as a desktop background and found Peter's picasa album, especially this picture. I can imagine myself smiling the whole way up while suffering like a dog. Sorry Vanessa.

Bontrager Speed Limit brakes

Did you know Bontrager made brakesets? Me neither. But they are lightweight. And black. And I - somewhat mechanically inclined - was unable to actually align these brakes properly so they wouldn't rub on my wheel. Yet-another trip to Salt Lake Bike company taught me that it wasn't my stupidity. Troy-the-super-mechanic couldn't figure it out either. Luckily another Madone was available to steal a front brake from, so my three week old bike now has a brand new front brake caliper.

There is something to be said for a good local bike shop. And it's something good too: They actually can take care of these types of things the same day.

SRAM Force rear derailleur goes boom

I learned something last week: a SRAM Force rear derailleur can only accept cassettes up to 27 teeth.

I learned this because I let someone try my PowerTap wheel and put his wheel on my (brand new) bike. I NEVER thought this would cause my rear derailleur to explode specatularly.

Lesson learned: no more generosity with wheels.

Results: pretty pictures, $117 for a derailleur - thanx to Masherz of Woods cross who were nice enough to meet me 1/2 way on matching an internet price, and $10 for a new derailleur hanger.

Introducing my super sexy Madone 5.5

I wasn't too certain about the red but it is definitely growing on me. I have had it for a few weeks now but it hasn't been without adventures.

No it didn't come with the dog.

This new machine is two pounds lighter than my previous 2006 Madone, fits me better, and cost me little out of pocket $ thanx mostly to Salt Lake Bike company