John Henry Giveaway 2, originally uploaded by Rich.
Yesterday, I got a message from Joe Polk @ MTBCast.com that I am the winner of the John Henry Giveaway contest. I’m really stoked and excited;) I don’t remember winning anything in my life… I think the Universe is trying to tell me that there is no way around not doing the TOUR DIVIDE race next year;)
This will be a welcomed addition to my Felt F65 and Salsa Fargo 29er bikes. I checked out the beautifully manufactured steel frame at Siren Cycles website and it is a work of art. I’d love to try it out and see how it compares to Salsa Fargo as they are both designed for the same markets - long distance cross-country touring and racing. BTW, I love the Paragon sliding dropouts;)
All I can say for now is HUGE THANKS to MTBCast.com, you got yourself a lifelong supporter, and all the sponsors donating stuff for the giveaway: Siren Cycles, Addictive Cycles, Carousel Design Works, NoTubes.com and Squirt!…
August 27th, 2009
Posted by
Rich |
Equipment |
one comment
Now, just to remind you guys: Leadville 100 MTB race (a.k.a. The Race Across the Sky) is tomorrow. I passed through Leadville, CO last week and cannot wait to see/hear/read about the rematch of the last year’s race between Dave Wien and Lance Armstrong. Lance looks lean and mean (from his Twitter pics) and after winning the 12 hours of Snowmass Colorado MTB championship he means business. If luck is on his side (no mechanicals), he’ll be hard to beat. With decent weather the winner might even come under 7 hours again, even break the last year’s record of 6:45:45. But I wonder if someone else decides to sneak up on the two heavy favorites and snatch the trophy away… I’m rooting a little more for David Wien. Lance has his 7 Tour de France wins, I want Wien to get his 7 consecutive Leadville 100 trophies too;) Whoever wins, it’s gonna be a helluva interesting race. Definitely a huge publicity boost to MTB marathon racing in the U.S. Some links for more:
Enjoy the race;) I hope that one day I will line up on the start and ride this race as a personal challenge…
RESULTS (08/15/2009): No surprise here, LA demolished the field and won in a new course record of 6:28:50, David Wiens ended up second in a little under 7 hours. (Singletrack.com: Armstrong wins Leadville in record time) It was really fun following it on Twitter as the webcast was a complete waste of time, at least according to folks who subscribed to it.
PS: Still uploading my Tour Divide pics, little by little;)
August 14th, 2009
Posted by
Rich |
Racing |
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Got back on Friday, just before midnight. I rode from Banff in Canada to Salida in Colorado in 20 easy days, with some short days and one complete day off in Butte, too. My plans to wake up and start pedaling early flew out of the window right from the start;) Usually, I started some time between 7:00am and 9:00am local time. I based it on how hard and how much climbing I had ahead of me that day. The goal became to cycle close to or over 100 miles. Plus, time-wise I tried to spend about 8 to 10 hours in a saddle.
As 2 years ago, I again finished my Divide adventures in Colorado. This time it was unintended. I felt the three weeks spent mountain biking on the GDMTBR were about enough. Besides, Colorado is so hard to pass through too fast: good food and coffee, nice bike shops to hang around, plenty of fellow cyclists. Despite eating all the time, I returned home 10 pounds lighter, 167 lbs which is closer to my optimal weight.
Salsa Fargo performed perfectly. This bike was created to eat up miles on a route like this. First of all, in my mind 29″ wheeled mountain bike is the future of off-road touring. There is no way, I will go back to anything smaller. The rolling efficiency of two-niners allows for faster and more comfortable riding. I had no mishaps whatsoever!!! I only did one tune-up in the Outdoorsman bike shop in Butte. Just to clean up drive-train and re-adjust shifting for cable stretching. The combo of Salsa dropbars and Syntace aerobars was a winner, too. Not a slightest trace of pain in my wrists, unlike in 2007 with flat bars and Ergon grips. No flats either!!! I think my Slime tubes might have been an overkill though. WTB Nanoraptor tires had plenty of grip on this route. The only complaint: the rear tire was getting worn out a bit too fast, after almost 2,000 miles. Not sure if this is normal. Epic Designs bags carried all of my equipment and distributed it properly and held up fairly well in rain.
For now, I started uploading pictures to my Flickr photostream and you can also see my GPS logs over at Garmin Connect (if that doesn’t take you directly to my activities just search for the username: “richdrogpa”). At Garmin website, you can see my daily routes mapped out and HR, elevation and speed data plotted over time.
August 9th, 2009
Posted by
Rich |
Tour Divide |
6 comments
