I couldn't persuade anyone to come out today, so had to fly solo and hence my blog on my training site vs. our BRCM team blog. It was nice to have some alone time on the BMC Race Machine as this was the first time I was taking it out for a longer ride. I don't think I could have enjoyed it as much had I've been trying to play keep up/catch up with the other guys today.
The weather was still a little cool when I got out some time after 9 a.m. I did wear a base layer today along with some arm warmers, but I did have the shortie gloves and just my bib shorts on. It pretty much stayed cool throughout, and there was a SSW wind that kept me cool as well, but also worked my ass on the way back.
On Antonio, I met up with a racer named Neal and he rode out with me all the way over Live Oak but turned around at Cooks. He was on a team bike (Cannondale SuperSix) and had the typical racer built (6'4", lanky). It was cool to ride with him for a while including up Live Oak. I found out he's only in town to train since where he lives, it's only 28 degrees. He's also getting ready to get an Orbea team bike, so his 57" SuperSix is for sale. How do I get a team bike?!?
Anyway, it was fun to play catch up once over the first hill on Santiago after Cooks. Along with some recreational riders, I caught a few guys with their full race kits on. I think one was a younger guy in a Velosport kit, but he didn't seem to happy after getting passed on the hill. I was planning on hitting Silverado on the way out, but I saw some people ahead of it where I liked being in chase mode better.
On the way back, I just turned around before getting to Jamboree just to keep going. I had passed 2 guys and was working on getting some speed up on the downhill when I saw a lady across the street walking her bike with a flat rear. I did my good Samaritan deed by stopping, fixing her flat (rather than letting her have her husband pick her up), and getting her back on the road. She didn't have any CO2 or tire levers, so I hooked her up telling her that I hope if my wife has the same problem, some good Samaritan can return the favor.
Back on the road, I went up and down Silverado, finished the canyon, went up to Live Oak again, and back down on Antonio back to my house. I felt good going down Antonio, but had a moment where the winds were just making it too hard to keep my rhythm so I did slow up a bit on some sections I normally don't. In the end, I didn't hit any kind of land speed records, but I managed a 17.9 mph average on a route with 5500+ feet of elevation gain. Good enough.
Since I was able to put some miles on the BMC and how it now has my EA90 SLX along with my Red cassette, I thought I'd mention how the ride went on it for me. I gotta say, the bike rode like a dream today. It felt great going up hills and seemed to make small work of them. I even stood the whole time going up Antonio on the big chain ring. I also liked the way the bike turns where it seems to turn in pretty easy, holds a line better than my R3, and just gave me more confidence probably based on how there's no toe overlap. The hairpin turn going down Live Oak seemed a lot less scary today. On the straights, it also felt like it tracked well. I was expecting to bounce around based on the frame's stiffness, but was surprised how compliant it was even over the rougher surfaces. Since the geometry was different than what I was used to, my lower back did feel a little more tired than normal, but I'm sure being on the drops most of the ride was more of a factor. I LOVE how this position feels on this bike though.
Here's the new bike:
The one thing that made this hard a little less fun was clipping in/out of the pedals. I'm still having problems clipping in on the right side, and I think it's mostly because I have it torqued down too much. I need to loosen it again and put some loc-tite and see if that helps. For 3/4 of the ride, I had to unclip on the left side, which was not as natural for me. Oh well, I hope I can get this sorted out. Otherwise, I do like the way the Speedplays feel, so I'll keep trying.
For today's ride nutrition, I had the following only:
2 bottles with Ultima
1 package of Shotbloks
2 Honey Stingers
1 Vanilla GU
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