A friend from triathlon club was doing a purge of his pantry from bike gear he decided he no longer needed to hold on to. I would agree that his house was overflowing with bike stuff and because I can still turn around in my room and don’t yet have enough biking clothes to do the entire 64 days next summer without doing laundry, I aquired a bunch of new-used stuff. A stack of jerseys, cyclocross tyres, race tyres, some cold-weather tights, and some new wheels!
They’re Mavic Cosmic Elite wheels, aluminum alloy, medium profile with blade spokes. I intend on equipping the rear with a carbon fibre disk shell (wheelbuilder.com) and using them for racing and the occasional simulation training ride. I guess this summer isn’t going to give them a ton of use but I’ll be sure to break them out for “Tuffest Three” in October as I need to help our team defend the title.
It’s exciting when I’ve got the opportunity to talk about why I’m riding next summer with people who are far more serious cyclists than myself. There’s something about biking across an entire continent that captures the imagination of everyone. It’s atypical when the “imagination” turns to how cool it would be to put in 9 weeks of high volume bike training back to back, but in some sense it’s the same thing. It’s doing something big enough to cause some apprehension, doing it with a purpose, and being super excited about the opportunity. That’s what makes this whole bike ride into such a good place to begin a conversation. Where God allows that conversation to go is the exciting part.