Saying Goodbye to the Lotus

It's been real, but it's time for a new bike. I'm going to keep the lotus as a project bike and eventually put SKS fenders on it to make it a rain bike. Before that though, I need to touch up the paint and take it apart again. I also need to make the fit less race-y. It's been a great bike. I definitly felt like the only thing holding me back on it was the gear ratio given by the six speed mountain bike freewheel. The jumps between gears were just too big to contest sprints on the flats. The downtube friction shift could be annoying at times, but the shifting was always very clean and never let me down.

Richmond Hill Sunbury Ride

This was a great, long ride put on by a couple of the riders in Richmond Hill. The ride started and ended at the Espresso Hill Coffee Shop, which turned out to be quite a highlight. The coffee at the shop was excellent, as were their pastries. I've never been a big fan of scones, but their scones were perfect and have me converted. Besides the coffee shop, the rural roads and marsh views made for a great ride. While drivers in Richmond hill aren't used to seeing cyclist on the road, in the large group of twenty some riders it felt quite safe.

Photos From Gainsville

Sufferfest

Early morning fog made for some fun spectating during the collegiate A/B criterium.

First Race Weekend

This past weekend I drove down to Gainsville for the annual Swamp Classic road race and criterium. I was hoping to have started the Armstrong team by now, but unfortunately there is still a lot of bureaucratics to go through, so I was forced to race in the CAT 5 category instead of the collegiate A category. The road race was held about fifteen minutes south of Gainsville and featured rolling hills along with what felt like sections of paved gravel. The criterium was held the following day in downtown Gainsville and featured city potholes, a mixed road surface of bricks and pavement, coffee shop spectators, and a surprising amount of elevation gain for what was a circuit around three city blocks. 

feat Granger

During the road race, the CAT 5 peloton was a mess with turns being taken at a crawl, sudden surges, and no one wanting to pull. Most of the race we were just cruising. While not bad for those at the front, the surges for anyone at the back were brutal. The whole of the first lap I was thinking "racing sucks, I'm never doing this again," but halfway through something clicked and I was able to position myself at the front. I slowly learned to anticipate the surges and know who not to be behind on the climbs (bigger guys would get dropped and drag you down with them) and who's wheel to avoid on the flats (the juniors gave almost no draft and couldn't sprint surge as well as the bigger guys). By the third lap racing was fun.

On the third lap, I managed to lose track of the laps and broke away from the pack with a little over a km to go. I attacked on a steep hill and railed it to the finish. Once at the finish I stopped pedaling and had all but come to a stop when someone yelled, "you still have one more lap dude!" The peloton came rushing by shortly after. If I had seen the lap sign I maybe could of kept going, but once I had stopped there was no way I was going to get back up to speed in time to catch the group. I laughed it off and went back to watching people race. Thankfully I hadn't thrown my hands in the air.

Pain face leading up to the "finish" during my solo break.

The criterium went much better. Despite being at the front of the pack for most of the race, during the last few laps I made a mistake cornering and went onto the curb. Thankfully, there was a ramp, so I was able to 'smoothly' ride onto the sidewalk and bunny hop back into the pack. This put me in the back of the pack, and with five laps to go I just wasn't able to get the positioning right in time to put me at the front for the finish.

One of the juniors going through the coffee-shop corner during the criterium. Later in the day there would be a nasty crash right here.