My Tour de France

[toolonglegs]

Not lean enough FT, but I will get there, I will be the lightest I have been at the start of a season, that's for sure.
Foo, lights are pointless as it is too hard to see the black ice in the dark ... Bloody hard to see it during the day sometime too!. After last year's (idiotic) 6 hour ride at -15 I have got a bit more sensible with what I will ride in .
I will have to research the stem cap a bit... The aim is to get a tt frame soon and convert my System6 back into a training bike so I will have two identical frames geometries... Then just save this one for racing etc... I read somewhere someone makes a half size cap somewhere. As I think it needs a bit of flex in there..

[foo on patrol]

Hmm black ice = nasty surprise.

Foo

[toolonglegs]

I came down once on black ice, just stood up on a slight rise and bang I was on the ground. Took a team mate out too. We had to walk the bikes out of the ice... Could hardly stand up let alone ride... It went on for about 400 meters!

[philip]

tll for the headcap thing, try slamthatstem.com's shop here: http://metallicpoutine.com/shop/ - I think those might be what you want? Not sure if they will suit your bike though, check the descriptions.

[toolonglegs]

Cheers Philip, I had seen those but am not sure they suit... I seem to recall they suggest having a bit of a gap above the top bearing. IIRC the Cannondale cap sits on a small metal spacer using the outside diameter hence not touching around the stem itself... must give the stem a bit more flex.

[Be1]

TLL - Both of my supersixs have a ~5mm alloy dust cap underneath, all you have to do is remove the cone spacer.

[toolonglegs]

New roues ... local guy put them together for me for less than I sold my old C50's. Only issue is he said reinforced drive side spokes would be a month off, he assured me with an 88mm rear I wouldn't have an issue, but if I do he will change them for the price of the spokes. He should know his stuff as he is a product tester for Time.
1570 grams bare... should be about 2100 glued up... looking forward to giving them a hammering, flattish courses only of course ... he is going to make me some light weight 38's or 50's for the big hills that will double for CX next season .

[toolonglegs]

Couple of bad snaps from yesterday... one mid race, the other sprinting for 8th place, a couple of meters before the line, a break of 7 had gone away early in the race so it was only for fun.Considering how step the run in to the finish is and that we were all 30 of us together 400 meters out... got to be pretty happy with how much the group exploded up that final climb . I led it out but someone got around me just outside the frame of the photo on the left... 9th place it was. Good enough for a bottle of wine... already drunk of course .
Going to be a good year .

[toppity]

very nice TLL. How did the new wheels go?

[toolonglegs]

They went well... super stiff. Ran the pressures low 100F/110R as the road surface was really rough in parts. Hopefully they will do some winning this year .

[mikesbytes]

If you don't mind me asking, how much did the wheels set you back?

[toolonglegs]

510 euros, I sold my C50's for 560 so that covered it nicely . I think I will be ordering some lighter ( but heavily spoked ) 50's or 38's soon... the stiffness of the rear made up for the little bit extra weight out of the hairpin corner, it just didn't budge!.But I would like something light and aero for the big races later in the year and I will also use them for CX. At that price I can get two ( or 3 ) sets for the same price as a set of most name brands. Plus these hace a good warranty .

[twizzle]

Given the aero thread and similar discussion, I would have thought anything less than 50mm wouldn't be worth it (aero wise), and weight isn't that important compared to aero.

[toolonglegs]

His lighter wheels will drop about 400-500 grams...aero while being important for sure wasn't my problem last year. In a bunch of 160 staying out of the wind is no problem, it is the 30 or 60 secs I was losing on the big climbs that was the problem... these hilly races aren't suited to me... problem is all stage races are hilly . I thinking dragging 88mm wheels over proper mountains would be a bit much.
Plus weight really does matter in cyclocross where all the hills are 10 to 45 % ... running tubular CX wheels will drop me over a kilo on the set up I ran last season.

[ft_critical]

Your legs are huge TLL! Or are you padding them out again with those neoprene leg warmers?

[toolonglegs]

Nah mate, wearing full length kit there... so a little bit of padding, but I have big thighs... and not a lot of grease on them either . Kankles are the real problem!... I have pretty big calves as well and finding bootie covers that zip up around the kankles is a nightmare ... the RH ones I am wearing in the picture are the best I have found so far... lasted a whole autumn / winter .
Spring is finally arriving and wouldn't you know it... I am sick .

Pretty chuffed with my big thighs in this pic though only meters before crossing the line... I lead out the sprint solo from way out of sight in this photo, pretty good up hill till the last 100 meters and only one person got round me ( he is on the left out of the frame )... haven't hardly done any sprint training this year yet . I am very well marked in sprints for some reason... maybe the free ride you get sitting behind me? .

[toolonglegs]

In summer gear ... well for Saturday I was ... for Sunday I wasn't

[toppity]

still looks cold TLL.

[toolonglegs]

Up around 10 to 12 degrees... it's been a long long winter! .

[toolonglegs]

Pretty funny... soigneur for 10 days on a little team at the Tour de Maroc ( who did rather well I must say ) and I get a off the cuff job offer from a certain danish team who was there as well... be funny having the Chicken as a boss .
Bloody hard work this soigneur gig though... 10 eighteen hour days in a row .

[toppity]

I still think most of us would kill to do it, even if it was just for a little while.

[toolonglegs]

Yeah I have always wanted to see the insides of such a race... So when a friend asked me it was hard to say no. A 10 say stage race is pretty long...Only thing longer is a grand tour... But we had no rest days. The weather being atrocious made it much more interesting but also a lot more work.
I was originally going to be the mechanic but glad I didn't as I enjoyed my soigneur roll much more.
Got lots of iPhone snaps... Will put them up soon.

[philip]

That sounds like it could be pretty interesting, do you have time to ride your bike as well? If so, that would be pretty cool. From what I've read a soigneur doesn't get much free time though! Better give us the inside scoop if you get asked to help out in any "medical program"

[toolonglegs]

I got a few free minutes to check internet each day ( although connections were pretty erratic ) ... didn't bother taking a bike, didn't really stop from 5 to 6 am wake ups to 10.30 pm at the earliest bedtimes.
Nah, no medical programs... I did spend a lot of time outside the Anti-dopage caravan though waiting for riders to pee . Sometimes that took up to 75 minutes . Having the leaders jersey from day 2 to the finish made it a lot more work... but no one was complaining too much .

[toolonglegs]

Just a couple of snaps
Building bikes 1

Building bikes 2

Heading out for leg stretch

Casablanca

Leg stretch

Sardine can

Day 1

Team USA lol

Day 1... number 1... not sure how we managed that

Depart day 1

Team CMI

Depart day one 2

On the road 1

flat for now

Phil at work

glamorous pool pic

hotel view

Depart day 2

The first of many black clouds...

quick stop after the "depart fictif"... just before the real start

after day 2

Mathieu after day 2... 180kms, 4000 m and 7 minute lead

Day 3

Med coast was spectacular...

But never flat!

Hotel were usually 4 or 5 star

up on the plateau

day 3 neutralized section ...

the wind was horrendous... we did the feeding!

Day 3 ... and in yellow

Day 3

Pretty

more pretty

Mechanicing by the pool

One of many podiums for our equipe

Day 3

Day 3 ... last day of the huge transfers

Day 3

Day 3 protest ... wind was so bad that riders and motorbikes were getting blown off the road... neutralized for 20 kms after this and aloud to sit behind the cars, but then a huge storm blew in and everyone got on the buses and bikes on the trucks, aim was to go to 60 kms to go and restart... but one of the trucks carrying the bikes rolled on a descent in the rain... luckily I picked the right truck to put the bikes on, Cristina Watche's Colnago's came off the worst... so the did the 3 staff in the truck, but they were all out of hospital that night... Africa!

Protest time

hiding from the wind

Day 3

Day 4 .... rain

More rain an greasy diesel covered roads

More rain... and my cockpit for the day ( keeping note of breakaways and time gaps )

yet more rain...

a brief dry spot

Horrendous conditions at altitude in heavy rain and thick fog... 15 riders abandoned, some due to hypothermia... a truely horrible 180kms!

Mathieu ... yellow and polka dot

Mathieu and Torku stage winner

DS sleeping with 20 k's to go

More pretty

and more...

Lots of podium time

Maroc

More great weather

waking up to pouring rain

oh the joy

rain...

Sun.... but always windy!

Up high

great roads!

even more pretty

Dirt

Podium

more dirt

school kids

dirt, sun & wind

sheep

depart.... day ? ... was all a blur by then

pot holes ...

day 10

Final stage!

huge crowds in every town

rock star... Seb never got a chance to show off his sprinting talents, too much riding in the wind for the team

Guigui... after abandoning on day 6 or 7 due to sickness, finally gets in the car on the final stage and promptly falls asleep

Finishing circuit... final day in Casablanca

finishing circuit

All over!

Yellow and Polka

so many flowers to give away!

Bye bye Tour de Maroc

Back home and flying over my training roads... still raining and cold!