... and it's 7:30am.
Yesterday was awesome! Kevin and I rode 77km yesterday and over 1,100 meters of climbing in California. We cycled through the rolling hills of wine country and it was just beautiful! That is more climbing then we generally get on a ride back home, but somehow it didn't seem like it. It sunny and beautiful, however we had a pretty strong headwind on many parts of the ride and the temperature was 7 to 20 degree's depending where we were, although it never felt that warm. The roads had a few smooth sections, but were mainly "bumpy" but only some sections were really noticeable and the scenery was so beautiful I hardly cared. We kept up a decent average speed and I turns out I really did like the Ultegra Di2 for all the climbing.
I am still undecided whether I like the DI2 better or RED, I feel like the DI2 could make me a "lazy" rider as its so simple to just shift up into the easy gears (not having to swing a lever over). That being said, with RED, swinging the lever over really isn't any work, and I love the feel of shifting, the mechanics of it is all a part of cycling and often with DI2, it was so quite, especially with the wind, I had to look down to make sure it was had shifted down or up in back.
As for the Trek Madone 6.5, well, I liked the feel of the bottom bracket (BB90) more than I though I would, it felt very smooth and the stiffness of the frame and comfort in the back was really quite nice. The front end, the word would be responsive, VERY responsive, or perhaps "twitchy" is a better way to describe it. My first descent was a little scary and I thought maybe my headset was loose, but there was just a lot of flex in the front that I am not used to on my Cannondale Evo, Cannondale SuperX or my Masi. I just have to change my descending style which is fine because I need a lot of practice and fine tuning of that skill set anyways. It is helping me to become more comfortable cycling quickly! I think Kevin's description was adequate for our Evo's verses the Madone's "It's not as smooth as Butter (Evo) but it's still Margarine".
Alright, well this blog is probably not written in the greatest english but i'm trying to get all my liquids down while i'm sitting here before we go to climb Mt.Figueroa. It is 4800 feet, a 10 mile climb with an average gradient of 9%. To put that in perspective Mt.Cypress in Vancouver is 2625 feet, a 7.5 mile climb with an average gradient of 5%.
Mt.Figueroa is an HC which by definition is:
Hors catégorie is a French term used in cycle races (most notably, the Tour de France) to designate a climb that is "beyond categorization", an incredibly tough climb. Most climbs in cycling are designated from Category 1 (hardest) to Category 4 (easiest), based on both steepness and length. A climb that is harder than Category 1 is designated as hors catégorie.
This is the Mountain the pro's come and train on.
Yesterday we did one Cat 3 and four Cat 4 climbs and my legs are fatigued. Lets hope they wake up in time to climb up the mountain, its starts with an 18% gradient, so they better be ready!
Off to ride...
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