David Singlespeed Unrau

We rode a couple of loops of the Albion Summer Solstice 24hr race course on Saturday. The course is very similar to last year, with a couple of minor changes and some new links between sections that have been on before, but in different orders.  There are no big hills, and a number of flat open stretches – so slap a big gear on that singlespeed.  I was riding 34:18 and it was not too steep.

I’ve updated the race setups page with details of this season’s races so far.

I though I would post a picture of the bike I’m spending the most time on these days, as it is my favorite bike! The bike is my custom True North cyclocross bicycle. The frame is Columbus Cyber steel, and is just magical to ride, both on road and off. The frame is set up with Campy 1010 long angled dropouts, so you can ride it fixed, single or with gears. I don’t think I’ve ever had gears on it though. Currently the bike is built up with a FSA gossamer crank, Dura-Ace octalink BB, True Temper Alpha-Q CX fork, Paul’s touring Canti’s, FSA SLK seatpost, Selle Italia SLR GelFlow saddle, FSA headset, Ritchey stem, TTT Morpheus Handlebar and some old Chorus Ergopower shifters that I gutted the shift mechanisms out of for some ultra-light brake levers. The wheels are just what was lying around – a surly fixed/free rear hub laced to an Open Pro rim and a Campy Zonda front. The bike is set up fixed with a 42:16 gear, which seems to be good for just about everything around here. I’m running Panaracer Pasala 700x32C tires, which are awesome. They might be slower than 700x23C tires, but not enough so as I can tell, and at 60 PSI they are far more comfortable, and handle gravel with no problems.

In spite of the hot weather, I just got in a great weekend of riding. It’s been in the low 30′s and very humid over the last couple of days, but I’ve been staying well hydrated and popping lots of Hammer Endurolite electrolytes while riding. I think I’m finally over whatever was dragging me down throughout the spring, and my chronic sore throat has finally gone away. It’s good to be getting lots of riding in, and to start catching up on my preparations for Crank the Shield this fall.

On Saturday, I got in a great 5 hour ride on my cyclocross bike. Right now it’s set up fixed (42:16) with Panaracer Pasela 700x32C tires. I rode down to Cambridge, where I met up with Dave Beer, then we headed south on the rail trail past Paris before looping back up on a mix of gravel and minor paved roads. The rail trail was pleasantly shady and cooler. The gravel roads were hot. The pavement sections were unbearably hot.

Sunday was the O-Cup at Kelso. I was not sure how this was going to go, given ~120km of gravel riding the day before and my less than stellar performance at the O-Cups so far. Well, things were grooving. Sunday was hotter I think, but at 9:30am it didn’t feel anything like the afternoon heat the day before. I took it easy on the big exposed climb then focused on turning the pedals over through the flats and technical sections. I ended up 8th, and only ~7min down from the leaders – by far my best result of the season. Kudos to Nick who ended up 2nd, and Dave Beer, who had a strong performance as well after braving the heat on Saturday with me.

The quote of the day goes to Dave Dermont, who raced to victory in Expert 45-49 in the 1:30pm heat:

Going up the climb, it felt like my head was going to explode like a piece of popcorn!