Beginning of winter!

Well, I was doing a little cleaning on my day off today, and happened to look out the window, and yikes! It was a mini-blizzard! First time this year that any flurries have stuck to the ground, and this is building up pretty quickly!

Sigh...welcome to winter....

New bike at home!

The big day was last week! I went into Crono and met with Craig for the final tweak and fit, and then took that baby out for a spin!

During the final fitting session, Craig took a look at every to ensure that everything was as close to perfect as could be, and we just tweaked the left foot cleat position a bit, and angled back the bullhorn bars every so slightly to give a more comfortable position when out of aero.

This session really confirmed my opinions on getting fitted in a studio setting as opposed to buying a bike online. You can't get this kind of service from a website, and this is coming from a self-professed eBay junkie. Craig also wanted to make sure that if I noticed anything in the future, to come in a we could tweak some more. They don't get you on a bike and send you out the door. These guys stick with you every step of the way.

Okay, on to the ride.

Temp was perfect, mid-60s, little to no wind, beautiful central Wisconsin sunny.

WOW! This bike is a ROCKET!!! Of course, that reaction was to be expected, but this being my first carbon bike, I was giggling like a little girl for the entire 40 mile plus ride. Even on the brutal uphills, and the few minutes that I had to deal with a headwind.

It took a bit of time to get used to riding in aero again, having been strictly on a road bike for a while. While the handling isn't as nimble as a roadie, it did suprisingly well on some sharp corners, especially the ones at the bottom of hills. Once I got used to staying in aero for longer than 2 minutes, I really got the hang of this sucker and was able to let it fly. Super-responsive and smooth, this made my normal hard-ride loop seem quite effortless. So effortless, in fact, that I spent a lot of time wondering how in the world I ever got by without this baby...

My older brother is an F-16 fighter pilot, and I now know the rush he feels... :)


Unfortunately, the outside riding days are becoming more and more limited, and I am getting the odds n ends together for my off-season training program, including an interesting one for the bike trainer...

Check back soon for more updates, as the weather gets worse, I have more time to spend on the computer sharing my thoughts...