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Monday, November 5, 2007

THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY


It is easy to write a blog when your race goes well and you are feeling good about the weekend. This last weekend it was not so good for me but others on the team had a great time. I will start out with the good. Living in Bend we have an opportunity to help out some pro riders. It is fun a challenge and a bit of a worry knowing what you do could have a bearing on how the athlete does. I had to fix some skis for Justin Wadsworth a while back and though I was sure I did a great job, somehow a pair of skis failing in a world cup race as opposed to a day skiing at Bachelor seemed more important (the skis did not fail). We are a big proponent of tubular tyres at Sunnyside Sports for Cyclocross. We have been gluing them on for a number of years. A few years back TUFU came out with some gluing tape. We used it, figured out how to use it. This was by trial and error (on our own equipment) and of course by talking to Vladimir the head of TUFO North America. Some of the pros in town come to us to have us glue tyres on. Now tubulars will roll. Anyone who has seen the video of Joseba Belocki crashing if front of Lance Armstrong will know that. But a well glued tubular will only fail in the most extreme conditions. Probably after a clincher will fail.

Carl Decker came to us last summer and asked us to glue his tyres on. I asked Mike if he would do it and he said fine. They are Shimano Carbon wheels and one has to sand the rims, put a thin layer of glue on, put on the gluing tape. Put a thin layer of glue on the tyre. Mount the tyre. Carl has been racing on these wheels all season. His teammate had a problem, and Carl came up to Mike and asked him if he sanded the rims first. Mike said yes and got a high five. That is the good. We Mechanics at Sunnyside take pride in our work. Chris Sheppard won yesterday with wheels that Barb built and I glued. I was proud.

The Bad. My race sucked. I took off fast and decided I could win this race in the first corner. I was the first person to take the inside line all day. A great line but not at the speed I was going. Down I went, cut up leg (THE UGLY) and a bent rear mech (what they call rear derailleur in Great Britain). I managed to get back to fourth but then I shifted the mech into the spokes. This was after chasing for almost two laps. I was done.

After watching all the other races I realized this was a course for patience. I had none. I paid the price. Oh well we have next week coming up.

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