I almost fell out of my chair here at the office when I heard Richard made the plunge and bought a new bike, a Trek 5200 full carbon road bike. Normally this would not make a blog, people buy new bikes every day. But this is special. See, Richard has been riding a 199-something Cannondale and can smoke almost anyone he rides with. Put him on the flats and you better have an extra lung in your jersey pocket because he will send your heart rate out the roof. This guy is strong and I think his bike finally had enough. Poor Cannondale had seen a lot of miles and finally said, I give up, I can't take the abuse any longer. His Cannondale only had about 9 gears that worked consistantly. There were a couple of rides he would be stuck in the small chainring with only a couple of gears to choose from. Drafting him was like watching a battle between opposing mechanical forces unfold as derailler, cassette and chainrings waged war on each other. The amount of friction that was going on was physicaly unheard of. And he could still kick your butt. And through all this, I never heard him once complain.
So congrats on the new bike! You deserve it! While you are out of town the next couple of weeks, I am going to be riding and riding hard. Because the next time we ride together, you are going to have me for lunch!!!!
