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Team Bikeman -
Race Reports
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Written by John Burns
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Wednesday, 13 December 2006 |
Winding down with JB
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It’s been a long season. I’ve not taken much down time this year. Add in 45+ hours a week at work, some of it pretty rough, all the training, racing( MTB and Cross), and traveling and I am tired. Cyclocross this Fall has not been going very well. I had a little bit of sunshine at the Verge New England Series race in Farmington, CT and a couple of the smaller local races, but I’ve more or less been going downhill physically, mentally and skills wise since after the Grand Prix up in Gloucester.
Making it a little worse for wear is that I had pretty good legs at Gloucester and didn’t leave it all out there. I was hoping the easy week I took after Thanksgiving would be a good recharge, but it seems to have been too little too late, as this past weekend at the Verge finals, I still had “no go.”
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The Verge New England finals started off hectic and ended with a test ride on the 2007 Salsa Chili Con Crosso (Check out Al’s review on the Bikeman site for details). I’d been riding all week inside on the trainer and only riding my cross bike for the commute to work. When Friday night came around I put my bike down on the basement floor and heard some rattling. A quick check on the headset and hubs revealed nothing out of whack so I put it aside and called it a night. When I was getting my bike ready to load up in the car Saturday morning I noticed what was loose. My bottom bracket was toast. I stopped at the local shop on the way to the race picked up a new bottom bracket. I decided to drop my bike at the SRAM neutral support so they could throw it in while I changed clothes for the race. When I went to pick up my bike the mechanic said that my self extractor cap on my non drive side crank arm was cross threaded and pulling out threads as he tried to remove it. So, he tightened the crank bolt back down and said he would not work on it. I raced Saturday with a blown bottom bracket.
When I got home, I took out the self extractor cap and pulled the crank with the standard crank puller. NO problems. Pulling the BB cups was another story. A little of the non drive side cup shredded in the frame when I took it out, leaving the frame messed up enough that I could not thread in the new BB. This is not what you need when you are trying to rest up for the 2nd race of a double header weekend. In the back of my mind I knew Al from Bikeman would have the new Salsa cross bike at the race so if I could not get my bike going I could race the prototype. I got lucky and the guys at REI in Hingham had a BB thread tap. Tim at REI got the frame perfect and I finally was able to put in my new BB.
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Sunday came and I wound up racing the new Salsa even though I had gotten my bike ready. I have been racing on my Salsa Las Cruces for 3 seasons now, and I was interested to see how the new Chili Con Crosso would perform. Al measured my Las Cruces and set up the position on the Chile Con Crosso while I got changed. I felt instantly comfortable on the 2007. It rides and handles just like my Las Cruces. Both bikes are light, stiff, and smooth. The new compact frame, manipulated seat and chainstays and 27.2 seatpost, did not seem to add much to smooth out the ride. The 2007 seems to ride only slightly smoother than an already smooth Las Cruces. The best feature on the new frame is the flattened top tube. Shouldering the bike is a dream. If you are looking for a new cross frame, you will have no regrets with this one. So while the race didn’t go very well, I had a great time putting the Chili Con Crosso through its paces.
I have been taking it real easy the past few days. I’m just trying to stay positive and rest up so I can use whatever I have left to put the hurt on as many people as my legs will allow Friday 12/15/06 at the 30-35 Masters National Cyclocross Championships, the last race of the year. Hopefully I’ll find some magic, and improve on my 16th place from last year. I decided that I will only ride the masters and not tack on the Elite. Check back next week to see what happens.
JB
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