This past weekend Tadej Pogačar became the first rider to with the Giro d’Italia/Tour de France double since Marco Pantani did it in 1998:
This is a monumental sporting accomplishment, though it’s also a bit awkward since Pantani was doped to the very tips of his decidedly non-aerodynamic ears. This was also a bit awkward for the same reason:
Hey, I’m not accusing him of anything. Training is more sophisticated, nutrition is more sophisticated–and yes, the equipment is more sophisticated. Plus, riders are finally harnessing the power of carbon monoxide! And obviously he’s the most gifted racing cyclist we’ve seen in a long, long time. Also, I rode behind him for about 14 seconds, and he seemed like a very nice person:
That was my second time riding with a Tour de France winner, by the way:
And yes, Lance Armstrong was still a Tour de France winner in 2009. The UCI can take his wins, but they can’t take mine.
As it happens, on the day Pogačar made his own Tour win official, I was wearing one of the jersey they gave us for that ride:
This was a coincidence, and I mostly chose it because it was laundry day and that’s what was available. Otherwise I don’t really wear it because it’s too small; I had requested a large, but I should have realized that would mean Euro race cut “large,” which is probably too small even for Tadej Pogačar, not the large you get when your Cat 3 team orders kits from Verge. I do like how the pink on the shoulder complements the Faggin though:
And yes, the Spinergys are still intact:
But the suspense is killing me.
Anyway, while that big Swiss ride I did in a too-small jersey and on a 1987 Kestrel 4000 with a six-speed friction drivetrain and a low gear of 42/21 (yes, I’m bragging) was comparable to a week-long stage race in terms of mileage and elevation, it was technically a charity ride–and also coincidentally on this particular occasion I got caught up in a charity ride:
The marshals even thought I was part of the ride, despite my lack of both a helmet and a handlebar-mounted rear-view mirror, which should have been dead giveaways that I was simply an area dirtbag with a complete disregard for personal safety.
Nevertheless, for a few thrilling miles I was part of the action, and oh how I wish I had been riding George Plimpton’s Y-Foil, a.k.a. the Charity Ride Destroyer…
…as it shall hereafter be known:
But at least I was on Spinergys, which is the next best thing, and I was ultimately able to launch a successful attack at the next rest area:
Are the Spinergys really faster than regular non-explosive wheels? I don’t know. However, I do know that soon after that I hit a blistering speed of 13mph on a moderate incline:
That’s two whole miles per hour faster than I went on this same stretch of road on the Cervino with fancy tubular tires, so you do the math:
I’m shattering personal bests like they’re Spinergys:
But yes, I was fully and unapologetically in Road Weenie mode over the weekend, and I also spent some time on the LeMond:
After the latest crank issue Paul decided to put an end to my whining once and for all by sending me something utterly reliable:
He even sent an Ultegra bottom bracket with it rather than the much fussier Dura-Ace unit to make it completely idiot-proof.
While I was tinkering with the bike, I also flipped the stem:
This was how the stem was oriented when I first received the bike, but being delusional and vain I angled it down immediately. Well, as it turns out, not only do I like the bars higher (surprise!), but it’s also made the complicated shape of the crabon bars far more comfortable:
See those flat tops? What’s slightly vexing about the bars is that they’re angled, and if you orient the bars so that the levers and the drops are in the right place then the angle of the tops feels kinda off. But now, with the bars higher, the angle of the tops feels much more natural. I suspect the reason for this is that while the bars look all racy they’re really for delusional dads still clinging tenuously to their Cat 3 glory days, and so FSA probably designed them to be more comfortable the higher they are.
The LeMond may now be the ultimate dad bike.
