Depressed Derf moves out, the new lady moves in

The new frame has arrived!  Add that to a free new Dura Ace chain and rear derailleur courtesy of Shimano customer service and the future is beginning to look a little brighter.

New frame is a Jamis Xenith Team, essentially the same weight as the Scott but has tapered headtube and BB30so looking forward to those upgrades.  Ok, enough talk, here she is:

the quest for a new frame

and the search continues...

After going to both Cycle Path (local Scott dealer) and Revolver on Thursday I set out on Saturday determined to find a solution to fix the $20 broken part which would salvage my $2k+ frame.

Between Southwest Bicycles, River City, Athletes Lounge, Bike Gallery AND Veloshop the only thing I came up with was a very small chance at a warranty.  So, at the end of the day, I'm stuck looking for a new frame.  :( --yes, that is one of the only times you will ever see me use any form of stupid 'emoticon'.

I attended the Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge swap meet today in hope of finding the perfect frame at a reasonable price.  No such luck, the only frames there were too large, over-priced CX frames.

Next option: appeal to my fellow OBRAites.  There have been a few Scott Addicts in my size up there in the past so maybe I'll just get lucky.  That said, I've already started the search for a new frame.  While I REALLY don't want to buy a brand new frame there's not a whole lot of other options.  I had a good chunk of change set aside for a new cyclocross bike to be purchased through a team deal but it looks like that may have to wait a little while.

In the meantime, I'm going to continue to lust over sub-900 gram frames and hope something magically works out... yeah right.

Grumpy Gus moves out. Depressed Derf moves in

For those of you that know me fairly well you may know that some of my engineering friends have nicknamed me “Grumpy Gus.”  I don’t remember the exact evolution of this name but I have to credit Pat G. with it.  Anyway, Grumpy Gus left on Wednesday night and Depressed Derf has moved in.

Instead of reading a race report from Tabor on Wednesday night you’re going to be reading about the shattering of dreams.

High Desert Omnium Road Race (and entire weekend) report

Ok, the road race was yet another road race.  We rode.  Some Bend d-bags attacked, chased their teammates down and then weren't willing to pull anywhere.  The group stayed together for the most part courtesy of lots of disorganization in part of the local racers.  Teammate Pat G went out and did some good work in a break but again, no one was working together so that came back together.  Not really a whole lot memorable about the race.  Someone was screaming because we "attacked" through the feed zone (instead of slowing to 10 mph several of us simply moved to the outside of the lane and coasted by).  Other than that, fairly uneventful.  Leading into the final 5 miles teammates Alex C and Pat G tried to get a leadout going for me but we were all pretty spent so that fell apart with about 1K to go.  Still, ended up sitting on just the right wheel and was able to dig deep to pull out a 3rd in the field sprint, good for 4th overall.  Top 5!  Heck yes, I get cash.  Overall, good race but legs never really seemed to click until about 5 miles to go.

High Desert Omnium Time Trial

Screw time trials!  Sitting at dinner and looking out at the wind I knew the race would be bad but I had no idea of how bad.  Going into the course I hadn’t seen the elevation profile but I’d heard stories:  enough elevation to make your life hell but not enough to classify it as an “uphill” time trial.  Add a 20 mph crosswind to that and you have a brutal TT course. 

High Desert Omnium Crit

This race reinforced why I don’t like crits:  too fast, hard to maintain position and s*** goes down REALLY fast.  Even as I was warming up I was asking myself why I signed up for the entire omnium, rather than just the road race (the only event I really care about here).  Then again, there’s the “go big or go home” attitude so if there’s 3 events by God I’m going to compete in all of them. 

Sometimes you have to race smarter rather than harder

Last night was the first time I actually thought about where I needed to be before going in to the final sprint. I know this seems like old-hat for most people but last night I realized that the little things all added up, especially at a race like Mt. Tabor. Instead of just climbing up the hill, diving for the corner and hanging on to a wheel I noticed that if I took the outside line and downshifted before I was at the top of the hill I could easily make up 6 places. Similarly, by taking the outside line (and running over a snake on one lap) I maintained position better and it was safer because I didn’t have the typical inside cornering slow down. Like I said, all these little things added up.

Oh, one other thing. It was over 90 degrees when we started our race. This was the first day it had actually been “hot” in Portland so I wasn’t completely acclimated to the heat yet. Typically, I don’t drink any water but after one lap my tongue was tuck to the roof of my mouth so I reconsidered.

Overall, nothing new or unusual to report. A break ended up getting away on the last prime and I didn’t even know they were there but I suspected it because skinny little Veloshop kid wasn’t around. As for the finish, I don’t think I could have planned it better myself. Descending on the last lap I was sitting halfway back in the field but took the outside line and was able to coast all the way to the front, starting the climb about 5th wheel. Learning from previous weeks I knew I didn’t have what it took to attack from the base of the climb so I sat in as a couple Gentle Lovers guys pulled me up. One by one people started peeling off, almost like it was a lead-out train just for me. Before the last bend I jumped. Took the inside corner (and pinched off a racer—oops, then again, it’s the leader’s course) and drilled it to the finish. Came in 6th overall but won the field sprint in my second Cat 3 race so I’m counting it as a win in my book.

Up this weekend: High Desert Omnium in Bend.

Wage-Grade Labor Sucks

In all honesty, I would be an exponentially better employee if I was on salary rather than being paid by the hour. At this moment I am sitting at work doing absolutely jack-s***. The cause of this complete lack of anything to do is my productivity. I’m sitting here staring at 3 completed projects and 2 others just waiting on people to make me parts. I don’t know if it’s because I’m more productive than everyone else or if everyone else around me is lazy. Now I have to admit, I when I work I don’t jump straight into a project and bury my head in it until it’s finished. Half the time I feel like I’m on a walk or reading cycling-related articles. That said, when I am sitting down and working on a project I’m productive. Now look where that’s gotten me: a day and a half before a holiday weekend and absolutely nothing to do. Seriously, what the hell am I still here?