Bring me closer to dog.

Less then two weeks from Breck Epic, and that ride this past Sunday got me thinking...

The new wheelset I got back in May with a wider front rim was really intended for use with the Rekon 2.6 (not yet available) or the Minion DHR II+.  It doth tend to give an awkward yet voluminous shape to an Ardent 2.4.  Good and bad things.  Like having a really hot girlfriend...

who smokes...

crack.

That wheelset also weighs 180 grams more than my lighter 24 spoke wheels.

I also weigh more... than I should... despite some half-assed efforts over the past fourteen days.  I can be a good boy for twenty three hours a day.  It's that one hour where my id takes over that's killing me.

So, I could swap to the lighter wheels.  I could also toss on that Fox Step-Cast that sits in the corner upside down, staring at me when I sit at the computer in my bike room. 

I see you over there.  I know it's been almost ten months since we went on a bike ride.  I know I said you'd get out of the house more often.

Anyways, I could leave on the heavier wheelset, mount up the Minion DHR II+ and still be lighter than the 24 spoke wheels with the Step-Cast... but rotating weight and all that jazz.

Keeping in mind that none of this is meant to make me more competitive.  I'm hardly worried about that at Breck.  I'm just trying to reduce the amount of suffering I'll have to endure while climbing for hours upon hours just to get to the goods.

So, I am overthinking this.  Yeth.  Quite a bit so.

I will have this contend with:

Don't spend too much time looking at that.  Allow me to elocute my concerns.

I'm in the earliest starting grid as a Solo Single Speed Man.  Without really getting into the whole thing where I'll be even more in the clouds of a possible (inevitable) hangover, the early start does reduce the chances of being caught in the afternoon rain, hail, cold, lightning... if it happens.  Which it has.  Possibly will.  I do enjoy those moments tho, feeding off the misery of others.

Hold on to the mammaries.

No, my concern is that I'm starting out with the VERY fast crowd.  In years past, everyone started at the same time.  I could find my comfortable place in the group and occasionally enjoy the company of others.  Now I'm going to be off the back of this group, perhaps joined by a few other single speeders, mebbe some of those Duo Men 1/2/3 guys.  That's probably it tho.

My "people" will be starting in Wave B, a half hour after I do.  The Cat 2/3 folks in all sorts of categories.  The whole Cat thing somehow came into the mix with the involvement of USA Cycling.  That's not begrudging the decision to sanction this race.  I couldn't care less one way or the other.  We're getting discounted daily licenses, so not much to whine about there (unlike when I tried to register online for a local cyclo ross race but because I had an expired "Expert" license I couldn't).

I'm expecting to be a little lonely out on the course this year.  That's just a small bit of a bummer, especially after the rolling party we back-of-the-packer single speeders had at TSE.

One other dumb thing.  I've been finding myself able to climb a lot more while seated than I have in the past.  I ran my 32X20 (Breck and Pisgah racing gear) this past weekend, and I found myself climbing seated most of the time.  When I did get out of the saddle, I was wishing I was on a 19.  Hmmmmmmmm....

But that's not at 10,000 feet above sea level.

Shit.

Less than two weeks to sort it all out.