Saturday, January 24, 2009

A Special Specialized
It was a beautiful sunny day, the first Saturday in 2009 and Mick and I were hooking up with a relatively new cycling buddy, Ben Capron, the director of global marketing at Specialized at the Java Hut in Fairfax. I was riding the bike on which I put about 20,000 miles a year, my Specialized Roubaix. I mentioned to Ben that for racing I used something a touch less hefty. When I told him what my Specialized Tarmac SL2 weighed he seemed pleasantly surprised. We thought it would be fun for folks to get a look at the ultimate racing machine that gets ridden in every race I do on the road.

For those of you that know me, you’re probably quite surprised to hear that I even fuss over something like bike weight. Here is what goes into a bike the UCI would ask me to add a kilo to so it would conform to bike weight minimums.
Frame: Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL2, Size 49
Fork: Specialized S-Works FACT carbon monocoque fork
Headset: Specialized S-Works Mindset headset
Stem: Ritchey WCS 100mm 6 degree
Handlebars: Bontrager XXX Race Lite 38 cm
Tape: Fizik bar tape
Front brake: eecycleworks eebrake w/ Swiss Stop yellow brake pads
Rear brake: eecycleworks eebrake w/ Swiss Stop yellow brake pads
Brake levers: Shimano Dura-Ace STI Dual Control ST-7800
Front derailleur: Shimano Dura-Ace FD-7800-F
Rear derailleur: Shimano Dura-Ace RD-7800-SS
Shift levers: Shimano Dura-Ace STI Dual Control ST-7800
Cassette: Shimano Dura-Ace CS-7800, 12-27T
Chain: Shimano Dura-Ace CN-7801
Chain Rings: Rotor Q Rings 53/39
Crankset: Zipp 300 crankset and 175 bottom bracket, 170mm
Pedals: M2 Racer ORBII
Wheelset: Lew Pro VT1 Tubular
Front tire: Torelli Lugano Tubular 23mm
Rear tire: FMB Criterium Silk 23mm
Saddle: Fizik Arione Ti Rail
Seat post: Specialized S-Works SL FACT carbon seatpost
Bottle Cages: 2 Arundel Sideloader and OtherSideloader Carbon Bottle Cages
Wheel Skewers: M2 Racer Quick Release

It weighs 12 and ¾ pounds and here is what it looks like:









Early Bird Race #3

On January 18th the third Early Bird race kicked off. I was going to race Elite 3/4, but I was very nervous. The last Early Bird, there were three crashes, one of them was on the left of me.
The race was at 8:30 in the morning, and I had one teammate with me in the race, David Benkoski . At the start gun, one guy attacked. David followed and stayed close behind him, leaving both of us at the front of the pack. I stayed in the top 15, to avoid crashes. Less than halfway into the race. A guy in a white jersey went wide and attacked. After a few seconds, the guy had more than 10 bike lengths ahead of the pack. I attacked and broke away, but was unable to catch him. About halfway through the race, there was an attack and David followed and then went around him. I stayed back as David was getting a lead on the field. About less than half a lap, David caught up with the guy up the road. I stayed in the pack and sometimes went to the front to slow the pack down or I didn't work in the pace line.
When there was three laps to go the pack was pushing it. There were also several attacks after another. I stayed up to the front in the top 10 of the pack with two laps to go. I saw they were ganging on the breakway. They took turn two at high speed and some guy cut me off. When there was one lap to go, David and the other guy were only about less than 5 bike lengths. I followed this big guy to front of the pack. On the first turn, the pack caught the break and big guy, I was behind sped up through the turn and I passed the break. The next two turns I was trapped and had to go narrow. In the final sprint, I went as close as I could go to the sidewalk and sprinted to the finish line. I ended up finishing in the top 15 out of 40-50 people who started the crit In all, this was my best crit I had done so far.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

2009 racing begins @ the Early Birds



Dylan Casey holding court... (l to r) Alistair, Charlie, Steve, Billy, Daniel, David, Mike, Peter, Dylan, Fred and Joel. Teammates off mentoring: Marcus and Larry