Legend of Stanky Creek 2011

So going into this one, I had high hopes. In 2010, I got on the podium, and my fitness this year is significantly better. I hoped that things would go well and I might get on the podium again.

Like last year, my plan was to get into the woods first and hold that until the woods tightened up and made it much harder to pass. To that end, I succeeded. I did end up letting Kiran (teammate) past about 1/2mile into the woods, He was just jumping behind me to pass and I know he's a lot stronger, so I let him by.

I stayed there in third for another 5 mins. Then I hit the same damn root which bit me last year. I hit the root and went down between two trees. Instantly 2-3 guys jumped past me in the woods and I never saw them again.

After getting back up and getting under way again, I hit it hard and rocked the big ring. I was doing well until about mile 7. I was going through some gravity cavities and trying not to catch air coming out the backside. Unfortunately, I misjudged one badly and overcooked the far side. I came out in the air and had not planned to. Needless to say, the landing was terrible. 3 more guys got past me as I caught my wind and straightened out the bike.

At that point, I remembered the admonishment my better half had given me "We're going on vacation next week, don't you dare go out there and get hurt!!!!". I figured I was now in 11th place and just rode the rest of the way in. I still passed several people from other categories, but was 11th in my cat.

The time sheet was interesting - I was 5 minutes faster than last year and could have been as much as 8 mins faster if I had not hit the dirt!

ShimSramNolo

So I was looking at the Colnago and trying to figure out the gearing.... Every time I rode with my group, I was repeatedtly asking them to check what kind of speed we were holding. From their answers and what I could tell my cadence was, I knew something was not quite right.

I checked the cassette, which I thought was a 11-23 7sp and found it was actually a 13-23 7sp. If you plug those numbers into a gear calculator, the difference is quite large. Also the 13-52 that I was running when spun out is quite a bit short of the 11-50 I was spinning out on my plastic fantastic.

So I started digging in my stash of parts and managed to find a new SRAM 11-23 9sp cassette. This gave me the 11 I was looking for, and gives me a tighter range between ratios. Since I'm putting this on a 8-9-10 cassette body, it fits fine. The shifter just barely has enough cable pull to make it through the entire cassette, but it works.

This thing really needs a 9sp chain, so I'll be trying to lay my hands on one this week and hopefully it will work fine.

So I now have Campagnolo crank, rings, derailleurs and brakes running with Shimano hubs and chain and a SRAM cassette... ShimSramNolo!

Bare Legs.......

I finally did it...... I started riding in '91. I started riding road about that time. That makes for around 20 years of riding the road, but.......... I've never shaved my legs. Until now.

Finally, this weekend, I broke down and did it. I got out the electric razor and buzzed off the majority. I then hit the shower and got out the razor and like that. It was done.

Feels wierd. Definitely not anything I'm used to.