Muecke Racing

Had the pleasure of taking the new Bianchi Infinito for a test ride today, and here is what I think:
I’ll preface my remarks with a couple notes: I’m an ultracyclist, and spend my days riding farther than most. Today was no exception – by the time I arrived back home to give the Infinito a whirl, I already had 110 miles in the legs. So I do believe I will be accurately reporting what this bike is like.
Second, if you are looking for some negative points  to use to talk yourself or your spouse out of a new bike, you won’t find  any here. 

I’ve always thought Bianchi makes a great bike, and the Infinito is no exception.  I usually ride a 928 Sl – and the Infinito shares many of it’s finer traits.  The bike is very stable, with no speed wobble issues at all.  With hands off  the bars I was comfortable descending at 20plus.  I tried to induce a little instability, but it tracked perfectly straight.  Bianchis love to go fast, and the faster the Infinito goes, the more stable it feels.

Handling is superb.  Give the bike a trajectory change to follow and it does so immediately.  It never leaves you wishing you had turned a bit harder, nor does it ever cause you to believe you should have gone straight instead of diving into the Starbucks driveway.

Performance is where this bike really shines.  You are left with the feeling that every watt of power you put into the bike is being translated into forward motion. Powering out of the aboved mentioned turns, the bike instantly accelerates back to your chosen speed.  More than that, though, the bike seems to ask you to give it your best.  Pesky little rollers are conquered by simply spinning faster, maintaining speed on long flat pulls is easier, and the bike wants to accelerate while climbing.  It carries power deep into the pedal stroke – there is very little feel of a dead spot at the top and bottom of the stroke. 

The new geometry works well. The  higher headtube brings your shoulders and head up and back, which allows you to find a balanced feel on the bike.  I can’t speak for the other changes – longer wheelbase and slightly different seatpost angle, but they all add up to a very stable, comfortable ride.

Certainly this bike is built for  long days in the saddle – less power is wasted fighting the frame, while comfort and bike behaviour leave you free to enjoy the day.

Sort of a grueling experiment on Sunday:
Got up just as it turned Sunday, and amazingly, was out the door and riding by 1:00am. Plan was to do a White Pass out and return – the weather was forcast for some patchy fog, but otherwise mostly sunny. Sounded great to climb up into a forest and enjoy a bit of sun for a change.
Somewhere out near Prosser I blithely rode into a pack of about 6 squabbling dogs – but fortunately they were intent on beating the stuffing out of each other before they realized I had come and gone. I think it was good this happened so close to the dairy – the smell must have masked my arrival.
A few miles later and I stumbled on a much more welcome scene – young kid in the company of a couple of sheriffs doing some drunk-test work. Way to go guys!
Unfortunately, the weather forcast turned out to be really wrong, again. The light mist turned into light rain, which turned into medium rain. Believing the weather reports had left me with a backpack full of food, but no rain gear. I rode on for a few more miles, trying to decide if a real RAAM racer wouldn’t just finish the ride – until I hit on a great solution: I could turn around and go back to the TRi-Cities where in all likelihood it was not raining!
I got a little groggy on the return leg but took a page out of Larry’s play book and stopped for a few minutes in Prosser at the Starbucks. Breakfast sandwich and coffee.
I pushed back through dog-central with no problems, and arrived in Tri-Cities smirking at the Sunday morning clubs heading out for their ride. I already had more miles than they might see all week.
Finished the day out with a few laps around the bridges.

Started Feb. with a decent upward progression in mileage gains – Thanks to some slowly moderating temperatures and a blessed lack of moisture. It did rain yesterday morning, but I was far enough ahead on the week that I could afford the luxury of sleeping in. If the cats wouldn’t have woken me up. Later this afternoon I will be having my session with Michele Larson of Origin Nutrition in Park City, UT. I am hopeful to come out of it with a lot of good suggestions on how to get my stomach race ready.

I was hoping to end January with something more spectacular, but what I ended up with was a new personal best AVF/mile.  That’s average flats per mile.  One flat per every 12 miles to be exact.

I had convinced Mom and Dad, who were over visiting for some birthday cheer, to come out and play on Sunday the 31st., so Sammi and Brandon naturally wanted to come along.  I left home at 7:00am in a light drizzle, which was supposed to be a smiley sun with sunglasses hiding behind some puffy white clouds.  The rain was light enough to just keep the road damp – but damp enough to sling mud all over me.  Within 10 miles I was covered in the winter’s layer of de-icer and gravel – the Spiz bottles were a grime covered mess, and even the camelbak feed tube was gritty.

So, I got my first flat about 30 miles out, which I repaired and continued on.  Soon enough, the minivan passes me up, driven by Mom.  I wave them on then realize that the newly repaired tire is now getting low again.  So I stop and pump it back up again, only to be caught loafing by Sammi and Brandon in the Volvo.  I smile and wave them on.

And about three miles further on and I”m flat again.  Both ends this time.  I finally arrive in Walla Walla with four tubes with holes in them, and only 5 patches left in the patch kit. 

We regrouped and got ready to go riding for real:  Sammi and Mom took off for the nearest winery, while Dad and Brandon slid into close follow mode to check out both our new array of electronics as well as Brandon’s driving skills.  And I got another flat.  And it was still raining.  We patched it up and continued up the road towards Starbuck.  

The rain finally let up, but not the flats.  We were now down to cutting up one of the remaining tubes and making patches out of it to try and hold together the remaining tubes -which worked well until the monster climb just out of Lyons Ferry.  They caught me walking up the hill and we threw in one last attempt at saving the ride. 

By now I was resigned to setting another new personal record: slowest century ever.  Well, we were having fun, I guess.  I motored through to Kahlotus, took the turn towards Pasco and headed towards the river.  It was now almost dark enough to switch into nighttime support mode – which I had been waiting all day for.  I was hoping for a chance to check out the headlight adjustment – strictly for the rider of course.  Who cares what the driver can see at night, all that matters is whether or not the lights are adjusted to illuminate all the rocks and debris just in front of the racer.

But it was not to be.  Another flat, and I was done.  May as well head home and make sure no one broke into the fridge.

Today – Mon, the 1st., brought a new challenge:  the next increase in the training load.  I’ll go from 1 long day, day off, 3 short hard days, day off, recovery day, to the next level:  Day off, day off, day off.  Just kidding.  12-18 hour Sundays (unless I get more than 3 flats in one day, then I’m done.) 6-8 hour Mondays, day off, three days of 2 hours am/2 hours pm, day off.  Basically adding in a long day on Mondays when I am already worn down, plus riding longer miles after work.

So today I climbed on the bike and headed out into a dense fog bank and headed north looking for some sun.  Never found any, but at least the fog lifted up off the surface after a while.  Actually felt really strong for the whole ride today, which is good to be able to put in a fast century after yesterday’s ride.

What’s the hardest part of it all?  Staying motivated when it is foggy and cold?  Installing the huge layer of clothes necessary this time of year?  Keeping tires full of air?  No.  Eating enough!  My weight is already hovering around race premium – and it is only February.  3 breakfasts, lunch at 10, then again at 12, and hungry again by 3.  Sometimes two dinners.  Get up, lather rinse repeat.  Sammi keeps wondering if I am getting tired of baked potatoes – hell, I’ll be eating four a day if this keeps up.

well, spent over 13 hours in the rain today …

The fun started about 5 miles into the ride when my booties soaked through, then quickly progressed to a surreal climb up Clodfelter Rd.  I’ve probably been up that road 100 times, but this morning the fog was so thick that I actually got lost on the way up.  Not that I went off course, there is only one paved road up to the plateau, but I actually couldn’t figure out where I was.  I tried to climb slow enough not to drench my clothes – but I still had to stop at the top and put on another shirt for the descent down to Hermiston.

Today’s route was a conscious decision to inflict a little misery – in order to train the brain of course.  The ride out of Hermiston south to Lexington is essentially a 40 mile climb – but the grade is light enough that you are left wondering why you are going so stinkin slow.  Takes about two hours to get real discouraged.  Anyways, the constant rain wasn’t helping, either.  Turns out that a 30% chance of rain doesn’t mean that you have a 30% chance of it raining at all, it means that for the entire day, the atmosphere will consist of  70% air, and 30% rain.

I finally made it into Lexington, and pushed on, only to get a flat just outside of town, right next to a very rambunctious sheep dog.  Got the flat fixed and headed down the road, only to find out he had buddies, and all three of them were now intent on herding me where they thought I should go.

9 miles later and I’m dreaming of a hamburger from the Willow Creek Diner, which George and Terri from Race Across Oregon recommend as the best in the state.  Closed.  So I find the only grocery store in town and proceed to skitter around the store in my wet shoes looking for a sandwich and something warm to drink.  Hey, they serve Starbucks way out there.

I took a different “more scenic” route home (aka a crap load more climbing), and ended up back in Hermiston looking for more food and water.  The final re-climb back over the plateau had the huge added attitude adjustment of a headwind, followed by the same bank of fog.

There are no fog lines on the section of road that was resealed last year, so I was forced to ride down the center of the road – if was full dark again.  Probably the slowest I have ever had to come down that hill.

Turns out the reason I was so slow and less-than-RAAM-feeling was that in just over a century and a half there was 8300′ of climbing.  Have to do that ride someday without a backpack and winter tires.  Well, the brain work seemed to take hold about 10 blocks from the house, and I arrived back home feeling strong enough to ride all night.  But it is January and a hot shower brought me back to reality.

Woke up this morning to a driving rainstorm, and decided that it would be a good day to tackle all the little details that have started to slip through the cracks.  Things like updating the inverter in the van, changing up the storage boxes in the van, grinding down and polishing the headlights and replacing the bulbs in the van.  It’s all about the van.

Anyways, it was a good week of training, with a respectable mileage total.  But more importantly, a full weeks worth of after-work riding – as well as the morning workouts.  This is a tough one for me, as I am usually fairly tired after a day of work.  So it was a small victory to at least get on the bike every evening.  Weather permitting I will be out all day tommorrow – this time of year any riding outside at all is a real blessing.

4:55 pm.  I’ve been on the bike now for about 11 hours.  Had to turn the lights back on, and as I pulled the last little grade before the descent into Benton City I fished around in my pockets for some food.  Alas, all that was left was some fairly experimental tuna wraps, which I had been saving all day.  Or avoiding.  Anyways, with another 20 to go to get home, no choice but to start eating.

5:05 pm, rolling through Benton City, cheating the fog line to stay away from the debris field in the bike lane.  Larry is a few yards ahead of me, with some nicer lights than me, so I am watching sort of watching his lights part of the time.  Choose the wrong part of the time and just barely noticed a lump in the road – too late to swerve, which was probably better.  So I just tagged the slimy front end of a dead cat, but only side slipped an inch or two.

Anyways, turned out to be a nice day for a ride, although the sun never managed to burn through the fog.  This time of year tends to get a little tough around here with the rivers generating a constant bank of fog, but at least there was no precipitation, and the temperatures weren’t too bad.  I was out of Spiz so I had to rely on good old fashioned food, which is a bit inconvenient when you are used to just reaching for a bottle when you get hungry. 

The only drawback to the ride was the nagging reality of work on Monday – I had convinced my boss that a 4 day work week was going to be better for all of us as I ramp up the training for RAAM, but was going to have to go in and work on this particular Monday due to a “problem child” repair on a house with some water damage in the ceiling.  So now instead of backing the ride up with a nice leisurely century to recover the legs, I am forced to back the ride up with a short morning on the trainer followed by a long day working on a ceiling.

The new year brought an unwelcome layer of snow which was covered over with a healthy layer of ice, so I had to miss out on a New Year’s Day ride this year.  Jan. 2nd brought warmer temps and a lot more pavement showing, so I threw some foot warmers in the shoes, put on six layers of clothing, including the new Scott’s Jersey, and headed out in search of enough pavement to put in a century.

The traffic cams had shown more snow to the west, so I headed down to Walla Walla, where I met Sammi for lunch.  After a much longer than usual break, we decided to head further out and do some sightseeing.  We had heard about a small choclate store in Milton-Freewater, so off we went.  Wasn’t too hard to find, and yes, they have some of the most amazing chocolate truffles.  Not great bike riding food, but I have been enjoying them the last few evenings.

From there Pendleton didn’t look too far away, so I sent Sammi in search of antique stores and continued my ride.  At this point I was starting to really feel the last month’s worth of indoor riding – seemed like a long 30 miles, and by the time I got down to Pendleton, a burger and a beer sounded a lot better than another 70 miles to get home.

So I backed up the brewpub move with a ride on Sunday.  Probably THE hardest ride I’ve done this year.  Long, long slog northward into a mild headwind, frost on the road, fog, no sun.  I finally reached Basin City and was totally dismayed to have only covered 35 miles.  Gads – now I was really feeling last month’s indoor Buffy/Star Trek fest.  

Well, anyways, not a bad opening gambit to put in two centuries on the first weekend of the year.

Been a tough week for riding – really cold here, and foggy as well.  I did manage to get on the bike about 3:30am on Christmas morning.  We were headed north to visit Sammi’s folks for Christmas, but by the time they caught me around 8:00, I was only 65 miles out, and frozen solid.  I opted for a “better use this day as a family day” approach, and climbed in the van.  The fog finally lifted, but somehow that didn’t seem to help much, as I had frost on the insides of my booties.

I thought about riding home on the 26th, but it was 5 degrees out when we got up, so again, a family day.  Starting to look like one century may be all I get in December.  And only five months to RAAM.