Epic Ride

One of my buddies from work, Ladislau, has been bugging me to do an "Epic" ride for awhile. Since we had Friday off (Thursday was a ship party for internal work Milestone as well as an office move day so they gave us a 4 day weekend) and I had my new bike, Ladislau was conviced the stars had aligned for the "Epic" ride.

For this particular journey, he wanted to revisit a route that had brutalized him a year or so ago with an other avid biker from MS. The route takes you from the bottom of Raineer (Park Exit on Map) to Paradise. This trip was originally suppose to be four of us, but Saeed wimped out at the last moment.

To get an idea of the ride, take a look at the following profile from RamRod (a truely Epic ride). We started at the 120 mark, went to Paradise (backwards on profile), had lunch, and then biked back to the park Exit.



Stats from Ride (partially from my Polar, partially provided from Thom):

Distance: 83.12 miles (from Thom)
Riding Time: 6h 17m (from Thom)
Climbing: 10,426 ft (from Thom)
Speed Max: 37.2 MPH, Avg 12.5 MPH
Water Consumed on Ride: 1.6 gallons (204 oz)
Calories expended: ~5,875 riding, ~7225 total (from Thom)
Mechanicals: 0
Flat Tires: 0
Crashes/Wreaks/gunfights/explosions: 0
Bad drivers: 1 (red neck in a truck at very end)
Cops out patrolling: too many to count! (Too bad they didn't see the truck)

Got me a new bike!

I finally broke down and bought a new bike. I've been riding my Trek Elance since college (almost 15 years), but with my renewed interest in biking recently I decided it was time to upgrade. There were three main reasons for upgrading.

#1 - Shifting: My Elance was a frame shifter, so I had to lean down to shift gears. This was always a little unnerving at the bottom of a hill when I'm doing 30+ mph and I have to down shift because of a stop.

#2 - Age: Being as old as it is, my Elance was quite a bit heavier (being Chromolly steel) then my riding partners bikes. While it did mean I got a better workout :), it also meant I fatigued sooner. In addition I blew 4 spokes last year. I suspect my wheels are reaching their end of life.

#3 - Spinning: Man does it suck to be standing up powering up a hill and have old folks spin right past you (nothing against old folks as I'm quickly becoming one). My Elance is only a 12 speed, so my gear ratio choices are rather limited.

That said, I'm a rather finicky about my ride. I rode several aluminum bikes, but didn't really like the vibration. I wasn't sure I wanted to invest in a fully Carbon. Then I saw the spine bikes from Lemond, which piqued my interest. After riding one this weekend, I fell in love and had to order one. The final selling point for me was that the bike I ordered was named after the city I was born in. It must be fate!

According to my dealer, the bike should be in on Thursday. They didn't have a double in my size, but luckily he had just sold another size that wanted a triple, so he was going to switch the hardware between the bikes when they came in.


LeMond Racing Cycles � 2005 Bikes � Steel/Carbon � Buenos Aires