WHEELS and some racin

I got alot of riding to do before cross racing, so I needed some wheels. Why not go local? Stan's Notubes is down in my new stomping ground (for biking) in Big Flats, New York. Picked up a set of these Stan's ZTR Podium MMX wheels for my big brother Cannondale. Easily swapable to the RZ140. They are pretty silly light. Haven't weighed this whole thing yet but wouldn't be surprised if it was 18ish.

Also picked up a set of Stan's Apha Pros for the old amateur team Cannondale. Again, very light and the tubeless set up with Hutchinson tires has a great rode feel. I ran these tires back in 2008 with Planet Energy.









So I haven't gotten out and raced the MTB yet, but soon. June 9th down in William's lake. This race was my favorite race ever back in the 90s and it just so happens that my new teammate on Richie's team is the promoter of the revived version of the race. I remember the trails being really sweet, but I was a teenager. Quite often when I look back at things from back then I remember them being epic, but when I encounter them now they are nothing like that. I bet my skills on the MTB were better then though, so maybe it'll be even more epic. Either way, the course still goes through a cave. That's neat enough....and I'll get to meet at least one of my new teammates.

I have brought out the new Stan's equipment on the road for some racing....and the racing has been going much better since Hollenbeck's. I brought the wheels out for the Bristol Mountain Road Race. They certainly helped me defeat the negative racing there. I made things move on the first ascent up the climb and was fortunate enough to bring along some riders who wanted to race. Canadians Bruce Bird, Peter Morse, my pal Dan Staffo who's always racing a good race, and the aggressive Mt Borah rider Dylan Pudiak. We rode well together and put time into the rest all day. On the last lap Bruce split things down to him, Peter and I. He then went for it again and I couldn't follow. Guess I'm still lacking a bit. I rode in solo for third.

Then was the Tour de Syracuse. It had some hills so again, the race wasn't going to stagnate too long. I waited a little longer this time. Second lap we rode the hill at a pace that shed about half, then third lap hit it hard enough to bring it down to I think 5 or 6. We reeled in the solo Mt Borah rider which gave them two in the lead group. I always love the way Dan Staffo rides so when he put in an effort as most of the group was screaming at each other I decided it was going to be up to Mt Borah to chase. If they didn't, I'd rather see him win than risk motivating them by going after him myself. Some of the other racers I found out after were too busy yelling that they didn't even know he went away. The ones that did, refused to chase despite the numbers they had to sacrifice to keep the race win within grasp. Guess they were depending on us to do it for them. Well, as happens when you ride slow, we never caught Staffo. He won and I roasted the rest up the finishing climb to finish second. Glad to see Staffo win and my fitness seemed improved. I never went into the red all race.