The first race is now in the books! Yes, the last weekend of February. I can’t say I’m super pumped about that being I ended my 2009 season a little over two months ago now. It really seems I’m racing more and more these days, which I do like, just not sure about the February start dates. I long for the days when the summer races started in, well the summer!
Anyway, enough grumbling about when the race season should or shouldn’t start, back to that later. I want to start this off talking about the recent addition to my household. The Trek 9.9 Elite, which is the carbon hardtail. I’m sure some are wondering why I would go with the hardtail in this age of sweet duelie technology, but call me old school, there is nothing better then a hardtail for your race stead. I got it about a week and half ago and didn’t to get to ride her until a few days ago in Sedona, Az. The Durango winter has been extra brutal this year making my weekend get aways more like week long getaways very very far south. I keep getting distracted here, back to the bike! The thing rides like a dream. Stiff where it should be with that oh so sweet carbon forgiveness. It comes with a BB90 bottom bracket, which puts all the power to the wheel without any side to side action. The half mast seat post looks a little strange at first, but grows on you. It’s simply there to save weight. Speaking of weight, she weighs 20lbs out of the box WITH pedals. With a few racer tweaks she is down to a scant 19.75lbs. Yea, a heavy road bike! The handling is everything you would imaging from a euro derived race bike, but with the stiffness only the Trek OCLV frame can deliver. It turns on rails with the help of the Bontrager XXX carbon wheels. The wheels are even carbon... crazy! I can honestly say this from not riding a Trek for the last 4 years, they have stepped up their game, not over looking any aspect of the their bikes. I’m even saying this after riding on a fully custom frame dreading the day I would have to go the non custom ways. Now I just need to name her!
(It's amazing what you find in the the middle of the desert)
Back to racing in February..... I can’t! I already knew that, but I love racing and I needed some dirt instead off snow packed trails and muddy paved roads from all the dirt they dump on the roads in Colorado all winter. The course was a good mix of fun banked turns and the typical Cali Bro’hs course. For those of you that don’t know the lingo, that basically means road racing on dirt. They love that stuff on the West coast for some reason. Add in these guys are a few races in to their season, which means I’m in the pain cave. On top of my non racing form I spent Thursday night with my head in the toilet from some food poisoning, not the best prep for any race. I did think that I had fully recovered, but was quickly reminded that there was nothing in the tank. What this race did for me though was clue me in on what I need to work for the upcoming season and of course get my motivation back again. I had a long struggle this winter with the lose of virtually all my sponsorship and wondering if I was going to indeed carry on with my career in cycling. If it wasn’t for Bo and North Country for getting me the sweet new rig and helping me out with racing once again, otherwise I might be heading towards the desk jockey world!
So, I want to take this opportunity to thank Bo for the help and support over the years of racing!
Thanks for reading,
Chad
