How I love my wonderful toys

It's been a few days since my last post. I'd like to say I was really busy, that I had all kinds of things to do, but that would be lying. The real reason I haven't posted in awhile is that I haven't really been doing anything. Well that's not entirely true, I got my new toy last week.

That's right everyone, I'm finally on MY bike. We picked her up last Friday, and boy was she a beauty. I have had a few nice bikes on my day, the nicest being a De Rosa King, but I think this one may rival that. We picked her up from the LBS (local bike shop for those of not in-the-know) where they don't take any credit cards, can you believe that? I needed a few extra things, like a saddle bag which clips straight to my saddle, and a frame pump just in case the worst happens. Anyway, I fell in love with the frame at that moment. Sadly we have a strict rule about working on bikes after dinner, so I had to wait until Saturday to build her.

That next morning, I had intended on doing my recovery ride on the loner. I was planning on spending the rest of the day working on the Kuota, but I needed the steer tube cut down before the mechanic took off for the UCI 1.2 that afternoon. I asked him to assist me in this endevour before they left and sure enough it was done in no time, the only bad thing is when you start to build a new toy, you usually can't stop until you can ride it....... It was at that point that a steer tube turned into a BB, and you can't have a BB without a crankset, and heaven forbid you leave the front derailleur off now that you've made it that far, and, well I'm sure you get the picture. I spent 6 hours building this thing perfectly, Frank you'd be proud.

My first ride was only an hour and a half, and I wasn't really ready for the ride on this particular machine. It is probably the stiffest bike I have ever ridden, not bad, but I definately feel every bump on my bruised rib. I got home though and I was hooked. No complaints for this being a racers bike.

The next day was a rest day, not touching the bike, so I sadly had to stare at her hanging in the garage all lonely. I didn't spend that much time crying though, as Ronde va Vlandaaran was playing. We had intended on going to the start, it's only 20 minutes by bus, but that fell through. The race start was at 0945, and I didn't get breakfast until 0800, and then no one wanted to go with me. I had to settle for the projected image on our wall. I know it's so depressing to be able to watch these bike races live on national TV, in 3 different languages I might add. It's so hard, I think I'm going to shed a tear. Other than that though, I did nothing for the day.

Today I got to actually train on the bike. A friend and I did a 3 hour ride with 30 sec sprints every 15 minutes, or thereabouts. We mostly attacked each other at loosly 15 minutes forcing the other person to react. We both won an equal amount of sprints. I am quite a bit fast than he is, but he has knowledge of the road so he can catch me off guard sometimes. It really helped building my reaction time, my sprint needs a bit more work, I'm not happy yet. I maxed out at 1166 watts, and at 60 kilos (my weight) that translates into just shy of 20:1, I want it to be 22:1 which means I need another 200 watts. I can get it, but it'll take time. I shattered my previous records for peak power levels, my 5 sec is now at 1066, and my 30 sec is 734. Not too shabby for a tiny guy! BTW, that bike handles awesome, nice and stiff when I need it transfer power, and nice and compliant over the cobbles, that's right I did cobbles today, only one stretch near the house, but I'm still going to brag.

In the next few weeks I'm planning on hitting the climbs of Vlandaaran, you can curse me out later Frank. Until then, ciao.