Rampage

Last weekend was the first Icup race down in San Jorge. Ash and I pulled in late Friday night and set up camp and went to bed. It was a windy night and we used the car to hold down our tarp while we set up the tent. The wind woke me up once around two and I had to get up and take a walk. Besides that I slept well as I usually do when camping. It was nice staying at the course because it gave us a lot of free time before the race. Ash raced first and did well, while I chatted with teammates and prepped for my race.


I had a good first lap and stayed in contention with the top 5. Stuart Goodwin showed up and he and I were passing each other for the first lap and a half. That was cool, Stuart's old bike (by now really old bike) was my first race bike about 8 years ago. I ran with his brothers in high school and they were fast, just like Stuart is on a bike. Racer passed me during the second lap and I grabbed his wheel. Racer's wheel is a good one to be on coz he always takes great lines. Kenny passed me on one of the river wash climbs.Kenny's bike has a belt drive that makes a slight humming noise, kind of like a UFO. Very cool. Probably the coolest sound I heard all race, and definitely the most distracting one. Bikes usually don't sound lik UFOs.

From here on it all went downhill. I flatted on the downhill portion of the second lap, Stan's spraying all over and then drenching my rear wheel after I put a tube in. I lost a bunch of places but passed a ton of people on the first half of the third lap. But then I flatted again, the front this time. With no tube I started hiking in. I took a short cut and just went back to the tent. I crossed the finish line walking the wrong way at about two hours.

I felt really good when I was riding. It was a lot of fun despite the mechanicals and now I'm super excited for the rest the season. Afterwards we went for a ride and Ash took these funny pictures that look like team photo profile shots. They totally belong on a rider profile page.

Good times in San Jorge. Can't wait for dry trails up here and more riding.

Classy

Maybe because it's the most observable part when riding a bike, but I think top-caps are one of the ugliest pieces on a bike. Finally, someone made it look good, by getting rid of it: Photo

Chris King Inset Headset

Chris King just announced that they're coming out with a headset for semi-integrated frames, which I believe means for the Cane Creek ZS standard. That means everyone with a G2 29er will be able to run a King headset, including me in my superfly!

The only question now is what color to get?

Good thing we'll have to June to decide!