Race Totals

Over the past few weeks, I have compiled a list of the races I've done since my first race in 1997. Depending on who you are it's possibly a staggering number, or just a "oh not bad" sort of number.   As of now, the total fitness event number is 104.  104 includes 11 non cycling or competitive but not cycling events.  Competitive non cycling events includes 5k's , Tri's, Crossfit, and if I ever do any swim only events those too.  Noncompetitive cycling events include Tours and the CTS camp. 

With that said this means I am keeping tabs on 2 totals, the other is cycling races, which includes mtb, road, CX, and gravel events, and that total is 93.  There's a fair chance I can make it to 100 yet this year, depends a bit on motivation and the weather.  There won't be any big party or anything like that when I make it to 100, but definitely a cool number to keep track of, and continue to keep it going up!

All this compiling of race data was motivated by an expected need for a racing resume.  I definitely am not going to get any sponsors based on my finishes, but lots of companies these days are looking for product ambassador's, which is a publicity type sponsorship and that's what I'll be going after. 

The few people that used to follow my old blog in 01-03 may remember I had a grass roots sponsorhip from Active.com.  Today's ambassador programs are pretty much the same thing.   I will note, that I will be very selective on which companies I'll apply too, if I don't believe in the products, I won't apply.

 

2014 Salsa Warbird Review

Salsa just released a sneak peak at their 2014 lineup today.  This is something I’ve sort of been nervous about, only because I’ve  been thinking “ what if I should have waited until 2014 to by a Warbird instead of buying my 2013 Warbird?”  My thoughts were:  What if the new colors are super awesome? what if the components are lots better? And worst case, what if there’s an important frame improvement…? Oh the horror… Well to be honest, I wasn’t all that worried about it, I happen to really like my 2013 Warbird 1 and with the few tweaks I’ve made to it, it’s nearly perfect.

 

First thing you’ll notice is they added a 3^rd bike to the lineup.  A much needed entry level price point I would suspect as it has Sora components and a few other downgrades, but don’t let that bother you, if this is your price point you’ll still love the bike.  The yellow color is super awesome, I like it! My final thought, even though I don’t know the price point, the 2014 Warbird 3 likely puts the Warbird at a price point that allows a lot more people to acquire one, kudos to Salsa for this addition,  Gravel races just got a lot safer and more comfortable for a lot of rider’s!

For me here’s the big comparison, how does my 2013 Warbird 2 stack up to the new 2014 Warbird 2?  This verdict is: this year Salsa got all the details right, pretty much all the complaints I had for 2013 are fixed for 2014.  This list is very short, and I’m pretty sure my issues were  caused by late design/production parts availability.  First the biggest issue, (remember I called this the “Shame on Salsa” error)  the narrow rim issue of 2013 is now solved by replacing the Sun Assault rims with Stan’s Iron Cross rims.   Interesting… Exactly the same thing I did!  Next issue, which is major (but minor) is the 105 STI shifters, which were advertised on last year’s bike should actually be delivered on this year’s bike!  That’s it, perfection.  One bonus for me, I like my Orange color better than this year’s red.  Red is still a nice color, but I’m glad I went ahead and bought the 2013 orange!

And for the flagship Warbird Ti.  Thank you for painting it!  I personally do not like plain Ti bikes, it’s too 90’s looking for me and just plain boring!  Painting some parts, and leaving other parts raw Ti is perfect, show off the fact it’s Ti, and yet put some pizazz to it.  Personally, I would have liked an actual color over just black, but still I like it!  Now the fork paint scheme… Wow!  If only there was a few more blue highlights in the frame, then this bike would have been incredible.  From a component standpoint,  I’m not sure how the previous HED Belgium rims compare, but it seems likely the Stan’s Iron Cross rims shown for 2014 are better.  Other than that an Ultegra grupo is the cat’s meow!

 

Definitely, I great line up of gravel machines for 2014 !

Columbus Duathlon

Columbus, NE

 

There was lots of races this weekend, Friday Saturday criteriums and a mtb race on Saturday too.  Despite lots of great cycling options, I chose to try out a Duathlon this weekend.  Reasoning was rather simple, my legs felt ok, but I knew they would disappoint me if I did the mtb race, and quite frankly my weight would disappoint me if I tried the crit.  Besides that lots of athletes from GI were headed to Columbus so it seemed like a nice no pressure event to be social at, a win win for the weekend.  Also, I got to break out my TT bike and race wheels!  First time, I’ve officially used the TT bike and only the second on the race wheels…!? 

 

The Duathlon stated with a 2 mile run, I managed a 7:12 pace, not too bad for a cyclist.  It did hurt though, I haven’t done much running since Feb/March…  Next up was a 13.8 mile bike, this didn’t go quite as well as I had hoped, which confirmed that my legs would have let me down had I done a bike only event…  Most likely, that is, the run definitely started things off in an very unusual pattern for me.  Even so, the bike leg went ok, I managed a 22.9 mph average, which was actually good enough to be the 3^rd fastest bike of the day.  There was several big climbs, one brought me to my knees, which I only crested at 10 mph…  That’s a pace killer for sure. 

 

Last leg was the same 2 mile run all over again.  This time my pace was still a respectable 7:52 but it felt much worse.  Nice thing is that it was an out and back so I could see all the competition and cool enough, I was sitting in 3^rd overall and a nice lead on the guy behind me.  I ended up getting caught by a coed team, but that really doesn’t count. 

 

So 3^rd overall for individuals which was also 2^nd in my age group.  I was 8 minutes off the leader, which is really quite a gap, but it makes for a fun day of feeling fast! 

Excellent results by the rest of the GI crew too, lots of hardware went back to GI that’s for sure.