Road TdB behind the scenes preparations

Another important step in the preparations for the Tour de Burg was getting my road bike sorted out. I'm anxious to race my new crabon road bike, and when I bought it back in April the TdB was something I had in mind.

Two years ago at my first Tour I brought this to ride on the road stages:

It was heavy, it only had one speed (slow), the tires were heavy wire bead 32mm commuters, and it just plain sucked at road rides. I only rode it on the first road day that was supposed to go 70+ miles and ended up being 90+ miles. It was a long suck ass day of unhappy torment. How hard was that day? I remember looking back behind me on the ride back into town to see that I was hauling a tanked Sam Koerber back into town. If it hurt Sam than it would kill a regular mortal human being (that said, I was actually dead and had to be revived when we got back to Harrisonburg). I ended up pulling the semi-functional Colnago outta my car for the second road day and had a less than miserable time dragging it around (after Carpong let me use his old 28mm Gatorskins).

This year I've got a new plan. I hardly think I'm gonna be able to hold onto the main field every day, but I would like to get dropped much later. This thing is ready for business.

Big Worm hooked me up with some old 28mm Gatorskins that still have some life in them. How much life. In the world of man laundry piles they would not be in the clean pile, or in the worn once or twice pile, and certainly not in the shit stained underwear pile, but the worn quite a few times, a little smelly, but not quite ready to commit to the "dirty" pile since you could still wear it doing yard work.

Other important things?

Awesome Strap clamping down on a tube, a CO2, tire lever, and a Second Wind Road Carbon Mini. One thing that will happen at the TdB is flats. Gravel fireroads and high speeds mix together to provide the common TdB rider a few inconveniences. I hope I don't have to use this shit, but it's there if I need it.

And here's some more shit:

Another Awesome Strap clamping down on another tube, another CO2, another tire lever, but no need for another Second Wind Road Carbon Mini.

Flats happen that often and you don't wanna get caught out. While my goals are meager at the Tour I don't like showing up that far behind everybody else. I'll be saving all my road mojo for the big gravel climb up to Reddish Knob on day 6 as that was the only time I finished in the top ten on a road stage in 2008.

Two days before I leave, and there's till shit to do...

What about things that aren't about me?

I've been grooving on Harlan Price's coverage of the BC Bike Race over on Cyclingdirt.org. Most recently Day Two went up, but Day One and Day Zero are there as well (these are videos that you could watch at work instead of playing minesweeper). I was at the first BC Bike Race with Tim Dougherty back in 2007 (and apparently so was Evan "get out of my fucking way" Plews), and I would love to go back. Maybe once I get that whole "independently wealthy" thing going.