RyanHarne.com

I decided to sell a kidney and all of my high school guitar equipment (well, most of it; and maybe not the kidney) to purchase a racing bike. There was only one bike I was considering, really. It had to be a Trek Madone, the ultimate carbon fiber frame accompianed by top-of-the-line hardware. This is probably the way I’ll approach my first car purchase - since I drive so infrequently, I’ll buy something entirely out of my league and, before I know it, 509 Progress St. in Blacksburg, VA will be the home of a Ferrari supercar. It’ll be a sight watching me pull into Kroger to pick up carrots, bananas, an Italian sweet bread loaf, and a half-gallon of milk.

Anyways. So, I bought a bike. This terribly quick snapshot shows what type of transition I took from the Pilot to the Madone. A touring geometry to a racing geometry; that makes a moderately-describable lot of difference. I shall try to describe the amazing difference.

It’s so much difference, in fact, that in today’s Wednesday Worlds racing/training ride I stayed in the pack the entire time except for a brief moment right before the mid-break point where I pulled back to recover. So much more difference, too, due to that geometry again, that not only could I stay in the pack - maintaining a sprinting pace of 28-30 mph throughout, but I … get this … came in 4th place.

Fourth place. Third runner-up. Apart from the discovery that remaining in the pack reduces wind resistance by a significant amount, the bike weight drop (from Pilot to Madone) is so obvious that at every turn and stretch I was traveling anywhere from 3 to 8 mph faster than what I was used to on the Pilot. That’s an enormous increase in performance.

My method was to stay in the back of the pack and prepare myself for the climb up Harding St. Once we reached the last bend before the ascent, I acquired my comfortable stance and began passing people. Carbon fiber wants to climb. Before I knew it, I had passed everyone except for the trio who dropped the pack and sprinted right before the climb and therefore were about a minute ahead of me. Once I reached the peak, I was about 45 seconds back from the leader.

And I’ll admit, some of the top team riders were not having their best day and the weather was unusually good for me. But. I did so much better than last Wednesday when only the teammates kindness helped me finish the race, for the most part.

Yes, I’m ranting and tired and the combination makes me more the terrible storyteller; but, I had a wonderful evening of riding. A wonderful new bike helps; yet, the important thing is that I received some confirmation that I have a good pair of cycling legs. I apologize for writing about cycling so much. But. There will only be more of this, obviously.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 at 11:04 pm and is filed under , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.