PLEASE DONATE TO A GOOD CAUSE
WEBSITE: 500 for the Heart
THE CAUSE
“Hope from the Heart” is an annual fund raising event that directly benefits victims of cancer. All of the donations received from you are administered by the Brady Clergy Association and given to people in McCulloch County who are battling cancer. Every dollar you choose to contribute to helping these victims, will help pay for expenses related to their treatments, including wigs, travel expenses, etc.
THE CHALLENGE
I have been offered the challenge, as a contestant of the “Mr. Heart of Texas” competition, of raising money from you to help people suffering from cancer. To honor this challenge, I have committed the next 25 days to covering 500 miles swimming, cycling, and running. My challenge to you is to make these miles VALUABLE! Please donate as much as you can right now to this challenge. Your generosity will be recognized at the culmination of this fund raising event, “Mr. Heart of Texas” competition, February 13, 2010. So please, meet the challenge of helping someone with cancer right now.
*AS A WAY OF THANKING YOU, I WILL GIVE EVERY DONOR A “LIVESTRONG” BRACELET WHOSE $1 WILL GO TO LIVESTRONG.ORG
A little about me...
I am a small business manager and a triathlete. I have been training and competing in triathlons for over 10 years and prefer long distance races. I hope you will help make these 500 of my miles on the road mean something to people who suffer.
-Heath
Monday, January 25, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
ATC Saturday Ride
If you havent experienced the ATC Saturday ride just play along.
Its been awhile since I have done the ride due to injury/laziness/etc. but I jumped into the game today. I was hoping for a somewhat relaxed ride since the roadies would be at Copperas Cove Road Race.
We set out from the shop and sure enough I see Pro Triathlete James Cotter ride up on his Cervelo P3...dang it. Followed by Pro Triathlete Jason Mcmillan...dang it...and Pro Triathlete Chris Tremonte , and Pro Triathlete John Kenny...dang it. It was okay though since 4 tri pros just ride at a steady hard pace so its a not so easy draftfest for me. (thank you Pros Brandon and Amy Marsh for not showing up this time).
Two more blocks pass and Super Squadra apprears....things just turned ugly. Dave Wenger(2008 State TT champ and CAT 1 roadie), Phil Wicoff (scary fast CAT 1 Roadie dude) and another guy which I know meant trouble hopped on. It looked like the ease into it ride just turned into the sufferfest known as the ATC Saturday Ride.
The ride consist of a 5 mile warmup and then the turn onto Southwest Parkway which means GO TIME. I had my garmin on so here is a taste of the pace.
(very slight headwind going out)
Mile 1 of SW Parkway 22.9
Mile 4-5 at steady 19.5 up a solid hill
Mile 6,7,8 - 25 MPH, 29 MPH, 25.2 MPH
At this point I am starting to go cross-eyed....
I get dropped and somehow manage to bridge back up only to dropped again on the infamous (more than famous) Reflector Hill.
I catch DCR on the HWY 71 hill and we stroll back to the shop with a group of riders never dropping below 22 mph and hitting a 5 mile stretch never dropping below 27.1 mph.
In a nutshell it was a OUCH day.
If you havent done the ATC Saturday WORLD Championships its a lot of fun and a total painfest that only makes you stronger. I would highly recommend trying it over and over. It can be a bit scary going at it that hard, but it is worth it even if you get dropped a few times and come riding in solo.
See you next saturday at 8:30am!!!
-Adam
Its been awhile since I have done the ride due to injury/laziness/etc. but I jumped into the game today. I was hoping for a somewhat relaxed ride since the roadies would be at Copperas Cove Road Race.
We set out from the shop and sure enough I see Pro Triathlete James Cotter ride up on his Cervelo P3...dang it. Followed by Pro Triathlete Jason Mcmillan...dang it...and Pro Triathlete Chris Tremonte , and Pro Triathlete John Kenny...dang it. It was okay though since 4 tri pros just ride at a steady hard pace so its a not so easy draftfest for me. (thank you Pros Brandon and Amy Marsh for not showing up this time).
Two more blocks pass and Super Squadra apprears....things just turned ugly. Dave Wenger(2008 State TT champ and CAT 1 roadie), Phil Wicoff (scary fast CAT 1 Roadie dude) and another guy which I know meant trouble hopped on. It looked like the ease into it ride just turned into the sufferfest known as the ATC Saturday Ride.
The ride consist of a 5 mile warmup and then the turn onto Southwest Parkway which means GO TIME. I had my garmin on so here is a taste of the pace.
(very slight headwind going out)
Mile 1 of SW Parkway 22.9
Mile 4-5 at steady 19.5 up a solid hill
Mile 6,7,8 - 25 MPH, 29 MPH, 25.2 MPH
At this point I am starting to go cross-eyed....
I get dropped and somehow manage to bridge back up only to dropped again on the infamous (more than famous) Reflector Hill.
I catch DCR on the HWY 71 hill and we stroll back to the shop with a group of riders never dropping below 22 mph and hitting a 5 mile stretch never dropping below 27.1 mph.
In a nutshell it was a OUCH day.
If you havent done the ATC Saturday WORLD Championships its a lot of fun and a total painfest that only makes you stronger. I would highly recommend trying it over and over. It can be a bit scary going at it that hard, but it is worth it even if you get dropped a few times and come riding in solo.
See you next saturday at 8:30am!!!
-Adam
Monday, January 18, 2010
Cervelo Test Team
The Cervelo Test Team is gearing up for the 2010 season and below is the rides they will be sporting. Some changes are they are on SRAM Red instead of Shimano Dura Ace. Thor Hushovd will be looking to repeat his win of the green jersey and commented on last year saying that Cavendish is the fastest sprinter, but he is the best sprinter. It should make for a great rivalry and keep things interesting.
Here is the bike candy.
Here is the bike candy.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Cannondale Slice 5
Written by: Dan Empfield at Slowtwitch.com
If a company invests a lot of money into the molds that form and shape its carbon frame, a lot of units can emerge from that mold before it's ready for the recycler.
The cheapest way to do this is to make your mold out of resin. A better way is to "carve" the mold out of a billet of aluminum via a CNC machining process. Best yet is to go about that process starting with a stainless steel block of metal; you might get 50,000 units out of such a mold. That's the gold standard.
But, do you want 50,000 units? Will you ever sell that many? Mind, if there are 5 or 6 sizes per model, that's a quarter-million units sold of that model. It's likely you'll be onto the next, new and improved, model before you ever sell that many units.
Regardless of what mold material you use as a bike manufacturer, you'll get a lot of units out of a mold; meanwhile, the pressure's on to sell as many as you can before your industrial designers and engineers show up with the next iteration of the bike for sale.
The later a company is in its product cycle—the longer a mold has been around—the more pressure there is to pay that darned thing off; to get your units out of a mold that's already done its job. Cheaper parts get hung on the frame. Newer, lower-end models featuring the frames popping out of that mold appear for sale. Prices come down.
The enterprising consumer might think about these molds—Kestrel's Airfoil Pro, Cervelo's P2 and P3; the molds that are the basis of Felt's tri bike line; Trek's Equinox TTX; and this, Cannondale's Slice. Just how good are the frames that pop out of these molds? In the case of the Trek, Cervelo and Cannondale, good enough to win grand tours and important professional timed races, and not yesteryear, but,within the past year or two.
So, when these very frames show up, complete, built and ready to ride, for $2000 or thereabouts, that's quite something. That's worth noting.
Last year, frames popping out of the mold featured here went one-two in the Hawaiian Ironman. And, were underneath the riders of the Liquigas Pro Tour team. Plenty of palmares to validate the Slice. So, this bike, which cost $2800 or so last year, is an eyebrow raiser at $2150.
Who does the Slice fit? It's best ridden by those who are slightly longer of leg and shorter in the torso. This, if you ride your tri bikes steep, like I do. If you ride yours on the somewhat shallower side, then your morphology doesn't really matter on this bike, pretty much anybody can ride it.
How does it ride? In truth, this is one of the calmest tri bikes I've ever ridden. And that's because it's got a lot of "trail." It wants to go in a straight line, but not so much so that it's hard to steer while in the aero position. But this 62mm of trail makes it a slight bit of a luggard while out of the saddle, so, just ride it in the aero position. Heck, that's where you're supposed to be anyway.
Let's talk about parts. This bike is spec'd with Profile Design T2+ aerobars. I hate those extensions. But, I love Profile's Cobra extensions. For this reason, you might want to consider a swap of extensions, and this will cost you an extra few bucks.
The FSA Gossamer crank is built around the BB30 standard on this bike. The oversized BB is a Cannondale theme I've appreciated for years now. I rather prefer larger bearings at their traditional English width rather than traditional English diameter bearings placed outboard of the frame.
You also get the nice Fizik Arione Tri 2, with magnesium rails, on this value-priced Slice.
This bike falls into roughly the price category of Felt's B16 and Quintana Roo's Seduza. Cervelo hasn't felt obliged to drop the price of it's all-carbon frame to meet this price category. Indeed, while these other companies are spec'ing Shimano at the 105 level and, on consumables, perhaps even below, Cervelo is sticking to Ultegra on its P2, even with chain and cassette.
This opens the door for Cannondale to scoop up a lot of retail floor space with this bike. Indeed, I was lunching with the owner of a large tri-specific retail establishment just last week, and, while he's a big Cervelo and Felt dealer, he specifically pointed out the Slice 5 as the surprising new hit in his store.
The cheapest way to do this is to make your mold out of resin. A better way is to "carve" the mold out of a billet of aluminum via a CNC machining process. Best yet is to go about that process starting with a stainless steel block of metal; you might get 50,000 units out of such a mold. That's the gold standard.
But, do you want 50,000 units? Will you ever sell that many? Mind, if there are 5 or 6 sizes per model, that's a quarter-million units sold of that model. It's likely you'll be onto the next, new and improved, model before you ever sell that many units.
Regardless of what mold material you use as a bike manufacturer, you'll get a lot of units out of a mold; meanwhile, the pressure's on to sell as many as you can before your industrial designers and engineers show up with the next iteration of the bike for sale.
The later a company is in its product cycle—the longer a mold has been around—the more pressure there is to pay that darned thing off; to get your units out of a mold that's already done its job. Cheaper parts get hung on the frame. Newer, lower-end models featuring the frames popping out of that mold appear for sale. Prices come down.
The enterprising consumer might think about these molds—Kestrel's Airfoil Pro, Cervelo's P2 and P3; the molds that are the basis of Felt's tri bike line; Trek's Equinox TTX; and this, Cannondale's Slice. Just how good are the frames that pop out of these molds? In the case of the Trek, Cervelo and Cannondale, good enough to win grand tours and important professional timed races, and not yesteryear, but,within the past year or two.
So, when these very frames show up, complete, built and ready to ride, for $2000 or thereabouts, that's quite something. That's worth noting.
Last year, frames popping out of the mold featured here went one-two in the Hawaiian Ironman. And, were underneath the riders of the Liquigas Pro Tour team. Plenty of palmares to validate the Slice. So, this bike, which cost $2800 or so last year, is an eyebrow raiser at $2150.
Who does the Slice fit? It's best ridden by those who are slightly longer of leg and shorter in the torso. This, if you ride your tri bikes steep, like I do. If you ride yours on the somewhat shallower side, then your morphology doesn't really matter on this bike, pretty much anybody can ride it.
How does it ride? In truth, this is one of the calmest tri bikes I've ever ridden. And that's because it's got a lot of "trail." It wants to go in a straight line, but not so much so that it's hard to steer while in the aero position. But this 62mm of trail makes it a slight bit of a luggard while out of the saddle, so, just ride it in the aero position. Heck, that's where you're supposed to be anyway.
Let's talk about parts. This bike is spec'd with Profile Design T2+ aerobars. I hate those extensions. But, I love Profile's Cobra extensions. For this reason, you might want to consider a swap of extensions, and this will cost you an extra few bucks.
The FSA Gossamer crank is built around the BB30 standard on this bike. The oversized BB is a Cannondale theme I've appreciated for years now. I rather prefer larger bearings at their traditional English width rather than traditional English diameter bearings placed outboard of the frame.
You also get the nice Fizik Arione Tri 2, with magnesium rails, on this value-priced Slice.
This bike falls into roughly the price category of Felt's B16 and Quintana Roo's Seduza. Cervelo hasn't felt obliged to drop the price of it's all-carbon frame to meet this price category. Indeed, while these other companies are spec'ing Shimano at the 105 level and, on consumables, perhaps even below, Cervelo is sticking to Ultegra on its P2, even with chain and cassette.
This opens the door for Cannondale to scoop up a lot of retail floor space with this bike. Indeed, I was lunching with the owner of a large tri-specific retail establishment just last week, and, while he's a big Cervelo and Felt dealer, he specifically pointed out the Slice 5 as the surprising new hit in his store.
Friday, January 1, 2010
2010 Kickoff Sale
Get Rolling for 2010 with ATC
From January 1st thru the 15th, Austin Tri-Cyclist, has 2 great offers available. Visit us at ATC ONLINE
Great Deal #1
Save on bike tune-ups and get your ride ready for the upcoming season. Enter the code upon checkout and just drop the bike off at the shop before Jan 15th.
Regular Bike Tune-Up - $30 (Save $10) code tuneup
Bike Over Haul - $125 (save $25) code overhaul
These early season maintence work on your bike can save you big later on.
Great Deal #2
Wheels are the biggest upgrades you can give to your bike. Wheels with better bearings and spokes will last longer and stay truer. So we are offering all of our Easton and American Classic Wheels on-line at a special January price
Easton Wheels 25% OFF: code easton
EA90TT
EA90 SLX
Circuits
MORE WHEELS AT ATC ONLINE
American Classic Wheels 20% OFF: code amclassic
Carbon 58
Carbon Disc
Victory 30