My Collar Bone

This is the xray from my fall a few weeks ago that I had mentioned. I've had surgery on it now and there is a plate that lines up the broken bones and are held tight with screws. I'm hoping to have the plate and screws out in mid December. Overall I have excellent movement. I have zero pain, but the muscles are pretty sore from the impact of the fall.

Marco Pantani

I've had a pretty wicked head cold the last few days and burned a couple of sick days as a result. While home, i ran to B&N and was suprised that they had so many cycling books available ... other than the typical ones written by either LA or CTS. Anyway, there were two books about Marco Pantani on the shelf. I picked the shorter of the two becasue it was a paperback and was published by Velo Press.

So I read about 3/4 of it yesterday and it was really good. I highly recommend. It was a unique view of European cycling and overall a pretty sad story about the guy.

Marco Pantani: The Legend of a Tragic Champion

I also picked up High Tech Cycling by Ed Burke and am looking forward to reading it. I especially am interested in the portion of the book that covers bike fit. I'd like to re-fit (?) my bike before I Start working out on the trainer for the winter.

Brad Huff Tour of Missouri Crash Remix 1.0

Dang Gina ... that looks like it hurt.

Holtman

'08 Trek XO1 Review

My new bike review ... better late then never.


So as soon as I'd heard that Trek we issuing new cx bikes this season, I knew that I wanted the XO1. It looked like it was going to fit my needs nicely.

The first problem with this bike was availability. My first race was 9/29 so I started asking around about this bike in early Sept. My buddy is a trek employee and told me that there was little chance of getting once in time. Every shop I went to told me that they were unavailable for order, even another buddy at another shop couldn't get get me a bro-deal even to order one. Whats up with this, don't you think Trek would have new products available for their season? I think it's a negative for people looking at this bike ... who is going to wait until half the season is order to buy a bike?

One a whim one night I stopped in at Wheel & Sprocket to warm up on a cold night. I asked the guy if they had any in stock and he looked at his computer and said the warehouse had 1. So I ordered that baby up real quick and had it the following day. I guess it pays to shop at Trek's larges retailer.

So now the bike. Its real sharp. It has a flat paint job, silvery with a touch of copper in it. Carbon fork and seat post. Its not light, at least not compared to my Madone, but it is light enough. It is extraordinarily comfortable to ride ... I chalk that up to tires that are much larger and lower psi than I am used to. On the dirt and single track it's chittery (?) I think a lot of that is due to the aluminum frame and obviously the rough riding surface. Since I'm injured and won't be riding for awhile, I think I may take it back in and have then add a second layer of bar tape to it. The biggest problem I had was bar vibration at higher speeds.

I don't know which seat it has off the top of my head, but its real comfortable. The carbon seat post is nice, but I worry that its going to snap when remounting at times. The bike comes standard with bontrager race wheels and bontrager tires.

I had the brakes cabled euro style ... right brake is rear wheel, left brake is front. It makes sense from a dismount point. Since I don't remember much of my crash, I won't consider that I panicked and hit the front brake accidentally sending me over the bars. I honestly don't think this was an issue.

I have two complaints. First, I hit the back wheel on a barrier one of my first times out and it knocked the rear wheel out of true by about half an inch. I did hit the barrier ... but not that hard, and was disappointed to see it lose its shape so easily. Second, the front brake squeals like a banshee. I have toed in the brakes, sanded the brakes, cleaned the rim surface and it still wails. Not too happy about that, hopefully over time it will wear in a do well.

One last concern has to due with the geometry of the bike. The toe of my shoes and the front will conflict with each other during sharp turns. I don't think its a major problem, but on real tight turns at slow speeds I do get a little concerned about hitting. I am riding a bike a size smaller than usual ... a 52 instead of a 54 ... so this may be part of the problem.

Overall, VERY happy with the bike. It seems rugged and has held up relatively well. After I crashed out with broken boned the bike was unscathed. I look forward to using it as a commuter bike some this winter and giving cx another whirl next fall.

Broken Bones

I broke my collar bone badly and had to have surgery on it. Fun.

I was racing at the Lapham Peak CX race on 9/29. It was a gorgeous day, and a unique ride. The race was two parts; a hill climb in the morning followed by a cx TT in the afternoon. I did well on the hill climb, think I cleared second in my category. In the afternoon the TT was going fantastic, I was really moving when I suddenly went over my bars to the left and hit the ground. Hard. Read hard. I got up right away and though about getting back on, but I was clutching my left clavicle and new I was out for the count. Riders kept going by and most asked if I was ok, I said no and they all kept riding to let someone know. I really appreciated it. Got back to the starting lot and went to the ER. Had an xray taken and it looked something like this .... dang, can't upload it. Will do later.

This all happened on a Sat, on Monday morning I had surgery. They installed a plate and 8 screw to put the bone back together. I'm like a brand new man now.

I gotta be honest, I'm a little disappointed. First it was my first cx race and its not the best showing. Second, it really puts me out of commission for awhile. Third, I had bought a new bike specifically for cx, and now it is just sitting in my apt. On the bright side, its fall and I really want to focus on the road season next spring, so its not that big of a deal.