This weekend - New Gear and Geographical Embarrassment

This week wasn't without it's challenges... A busy week at work saw me ditch two days worth of training and my Cape Epic teammate, John Randal emailed me on Friday to tell me he had a bit of an off and he was resting up this weekend (something about dislocated shoulder??? Damn!). Anyway, I passed on some medication to him (see right) and I think that after taking it, he should hopefully be fit and well to compete as part of Team Yeti for next weekend's Day Night Thriller in Taupo.

It was a beautiful weekend to be out riding. It's the first weekend since last Summer that I didn't wear leg warmers and I was extra stoked because I had some new bits and pieces to try out. Saturday I headed out nice and early for a few hours up along North Range Road. Although it was a lovely day, there was still a bit of wind up the top. I played dress-ups and tried on my new Yeti team kit which, to my delight, actually fitted me (a rare occurrence when you are my size!) and I had some new POW gloves and LG Neo Power Fit shorts which Cycletech had sent through to me the week before. I felt like quite the fashion statement, on my purple hardtail with green grips and cables, matching green Adidas Supernova glasses and my new checkered pink gloves... Very stylish indeed! The POW Womens Slick gloves were super comfy and will be a good Summer riding glove, being quite breathable. Not only that, but they look bloody cool, too! The LG Neo Power Fit Shorts were by far the most comfortable shorts I have worn in a long time... They are a compression short, which fitted well and had a really comfy chamois in them. I can imagine these will get quite a lot of use out on my longer rides. Anyways, my new gear performed well, I looked the part and the weather was absolutely stellar for a day up in the hills... I even got some sun on my legs!.. The start of this year's tan lines...

Sunday I think I left my attention to detail at home... Seeing as we are racing as team Yeti next weekend and I still have a few months to go until my swanky new ASR5 carbon frame arrives, I decided it would be fitting to rejuvenate the old pink ASR machine which was in the garage and had gone unloved for a couple of years... I swapped out the handlebars and saddle from my Anthem and popped my race wheels on it and it came up mint! And I was pleasantly surprised that it came in at the same weight as my current race bike. Cycletech had also sent me a pair of Ezi Grips Racers Edge which, whilst a bit of a pain to actually get them on the bike (*insert inappropriate language here*), they felt super comfortable on my hands, so were well worth the effort. I also had a pair of Stans Raven tires to try out. I finished getting my rig together about ten minutes before I had to leave for the MMBC Winter Race so chucked it on the bike rack with a few tools in the boot to hopefully make some adjustments before the race. Once I got there, I had some time to tinker (although maybe not quite enough), so I took it for a bit of a spin. My ASR frame is quite a bit shorter than my Anthem and it felt quite twitchy and cramped. I shifted the saddle back and that seemed to lengthen the bike to my liking, but I still felt a bit cramped. I considered raising the saddle a bit, but by the time I adjusted air pressures in shocks and lever positioning and all the rest, it slipped my mind. Once I got into the race, it became apparent that the saddle definitely needed to go up, but being in the lead, I decided to just deal with having my knees around my ears. Once I finished my ride, I put the seat up 5mm and it was perfect (amazing how much of a difference such a small change can make!). The Stans Raven tires were surprisingly grippy... To look at them, they look like a semi-slick, but are designed to run at super low pressures to gain traction (there is a special formula for how much pressure you put in them based on your body weight). I found they roll quite fast, but seeing as I am such a lightweight, the pressure equation had me with 15PSI in the front which made my steering a little bit spongy, so I'll chuck an extra couple of PSI in them next ride. I also found them really comfy over the terrain. Being able to run the lower pressures definitely smooths out the bumps for a rather luxurious ride at good pace. So I was powering along looking good in my new gloves and Yeti kit on my suped-up pink Yeti and then next thing I know, there's no one around me... I knew something was definitely wrong when I rolled through the timing area for my first lap in 26minutes and the lap was supposed to be 14km long (I was feeling quick, but certainly wasn't doing 30km an hour..) So it appeared to be the case that I had missed a turnoff on the trail somewhere... I stopped in at the timing tent and admitted my embarrassing geographical mistake, handed my number and timing chip in so as not to taint the results and further draw attention to my stupidity, then I headed off on another race-pace lap (although not really racing), determined to see where I had gone wrong. I found that in actual face, I had missed two turnoffs, not just one!!! And they were quite clearly marked... I had obviously just not being paying attention... Cest la vie, but a good lesson in keeping your head up and looking out for markers during a race!!! When I got home, I went for an easy roll along the riverfront after making more adjustments to the bike... I think I nearly have it right for next weekend...

First weekend in Spring was a goodie. Can't wait for more of this weather!!!