Busy, working and racing

ABOVE
The rig that got me through the TT in style.

The portion of the 10acres of the home we stayed at for the race weekend. The kids could care less that we were gone racing...

BELOW
Euan's Guru Crono complete with matching TT helmet. The bike is done, raced, and 11seconds below his goal TT for that race. 15:19 for 6.6 miles in the hills. Good for 3rd in his race. Nice job!

I hope to have some pics to post up very soon. But lately its been, work, eat,work, sleep, work, ride/race, repeat. Things in the shop are moving along. A Guru display has arrived along with a Retul and rotating fit stand. Time to really open and get to doing what I do best...bike fitting.

Up to now though I have had fun racing and riding. I did my first stage race in 4 years which really was highlighted by having my daughter out there with me along with some other kids of my team mates. The fun was racing the Guru Praemio. A full titanium rig. I had been road racing the Geneo and done well on it and love that bike. But I gotta test and feel. (its tough I know)
Well, the bike was a little heavier due mostly to using Shimano 7800 DuraAce instead of the Sram Red that is on the Geneo. One thing that I like about getting the Praemio from Guru is they can use different tubing to tune the ride they way the rider wants it. So of course...I got it beefy. Larger down tube, thicker chain stays, yeah...its a beast and I LOVED IT! What a ride. Since my first bike was aluminum and forever struggling to get to the ultimate with carbon, I was hesitant to want to race metal again. Sure, there are plenty of people who trust metal over carbon but the feel of carbon in a race is pretty nice. I have loved the Praemio on the road in fast rides and such, but racing it made me fall in love with it. Plus on the chipseal roads often found here in Texas racing, the ti does seem to be more forgiving than my Geneo would have.
I also raced the Merus (ti tt bike) in the time trial and loved it there too. Titanium is super nice and great for those who like to ride the trainer for alot of work outs, who are rough on thier stuff, don't like to clean thier bikes, or often lay them down in wrecks and don't ever want to worry about it and basically just want to have one bike that you will never get ride of.
While the Geneo is up till crit season is in full swing I race the Praemio again this past weekend out near Austin with the Edge tubulars and new Schwable Durano tires. Last race was on the Fulcrums. The bike weighed in right at 15lbs...nice! Even nicer is Rob Van Manda is a pretty flat course. I rolled the first lap and followed the pack, then when Aimee (one of the girls on the team supporting that weekend) yelled at me for being on the back, I moved up next lap and started to have fun. FINALLY it was flat and not windy! I came through the feed zone on the front and not a photographer in sight. Aimee did not even have hers. AAAAGGGGHHH!!!!!
Oh well, so the bike was solid, Ti is super race worth, even in the age of carbon everything.
Another good find was the new tubulars I was rolling. I came into a corner in a descent on the front WAY too hot and thought I was gonna slide right out. Instead I dug on the Duranos that I glued Friday night and came out of the corner gapping everyone else. Wow...not bad. Seems I found some new tubies to be racing.

Now its back to work. Lonestar Tri Weekend is upon us and all the triathletes need to get thier bikes race ready. The fun never ends....