Tour De Tick

I felt so good after yesterday's ride I decided to drive down to Neosho and do the Tour De Tick. It was a nice 3 hour drive down there and I had plenty of time for warmup. The course was rock and a bit slick from rain, but very fast. Unfortunately my chain broke on the warmup just a minute or two before the start. I fixed it and rolled up to the line several minutes late when the sport riders were heading out and I just told the offical and bolted. First time I had ever missed a race start, since 1996! I chased back to the last experts and my chain broke again@! on the first lap. I removed a link and fixed the chain and began chasing again, this time the chain held. By the 3rd lap i chased into the back of the expert pack and that is were I ended up, almost 20 minuets off the podium pace. Definetly not my finest performance, but I felt good in spurts and obviously two chain breaks are going to affect my time. I was also fatigued from yesterday but was able to hold on to race pace for about 1.5 hours. Overall, better than not racing and a totally awesome course on old pennsylvanian shale and limestone from the jurassic period. In other words, I got to shred some prehistoric dirt!

Mechanical, twice in a row?? - My carbon bike had a mishap last week and I am riding a loaner, so I am ready to get my fresh rig back from specialized. Unfortunatley, there are no carbon frames in my size left at specialized. So for the next part of the season I will be riding a new M5 alloy frame, Roval EL 29er disc wheels, and everything else the same as my expert carbon stumpy. I have mixed feelings about going back to alluminum. Aluminum is equally as stiff as carbon, and only slightly heavier if at all, than carbon, however it lacks the vibration dampening quality that carbon has and a well made carbon frame like the stumpjumper 29er is stiff where it needs to be and flexi where it needs to be...maybe too flexi in some parts ;) So i will be spending a few hundred miles out in the Blue River getting my aluminum mojo back over the next couple weeks.

My loaner rig is a 29er paragon and i must admit i missed my carbon frame yesterday to soak up all the little cherty limestone bumps and roots that the alluminum transferred right to my back, but the aluminum still rails on corners and holds speed well. I am hoping that with the super light tubeless wheels and sworks tires, i can lower the tire pressure and get a good feel from what im sure will be a stellar aluminum frame from specialized. The last specialized i rode was a 1999 sworks M2 aluminum, which is one of the best bikes I have ridden to date, so i have high hopes for the M5 optimized alloy. I guess if i want to I could sell mid-season when the 2011 specialized bikes come in and finish off the season on a 2011 epert carbon 29er or maybe marathon carbon 29er. Let the racing decide!!