New bikes

We arrived at the factory today and met with Karine, who is very patient with our very meticulous equipment needs. She brought us to the bike shop to see Max and Christian to pick up the first set of bikes that we will be riding this year.

Tasha will be riding two of these beauties, I will have one and my "A" bike is a Custom Carbon Cross specially made for me, which we will reveal in the next little bit... It will be slightly different than the others. We wanted to have Tasha riding two of the exact same bikes, as she is notrious for needing her meausurments to be within a fraction of millimeters as she is more meticulous than Eddy Merkx....so ipso facto, I get the "odd" duck.
That being said check out the new rides...


Louis Garneau Steeple X Elite

You may have to be a bike geek to understand some of this but...
This is the 2008 model, pimped up to exceed expectations with an Easton EC 90 x fork.
This model has a very well designed carbon rear triangle with loads of mud clearance and mud shearing carbon stays. The cables are nicely routed along the triangular aluminum top tube to stay clean and out of the way. The down tube is a little bigger than the norm and has a really nice feel to it when snagging the bike up.

The wheels are Super light weight while also being insanely robust, Shimano Dura Ace low profile Carbon Tubulars, iced with the new Vittoria EVO Cross XM tubulars...I guess the "X" is Cross and the "M" apparently stands for mud, this tire has some grip for sure, and for an aggressive tire it rolls really nice. I have used some of the older model Vittoria clinchers and thought they were ok, but the 290 TPI casing definetly has a really supple feel to it and I think I'm going to like it...it won't be a matter of not having enough bite to it for sure.

The bike feels really nice, really snappy, super light and new drive train is always so crisp feeling.
We'll throw em around a little bit more tomorow, but I couldn't believe how nice the Louis Garneau saddle was as well, I've been using the same saddle for a few years now and I thought it was going to be a problem to aquaint it to my butt, but (hahah) they seem to like each other...

I'll really know once I get to our training grounds at Greys and really hammer a few sections.

A big thanks to Karine, who was really patient with us and went over every single microscopic item to make sure that we have every type of glove, sock, hat, bib, shoe, helmet, jersey, thermal layer to make our racing and training as enjoyable as possible. Let's face it, in North America the Cross season starts with almost summer weather and transitions into some heavier fall weather, then it just gets either wet or cold or both and if you're not dressed for it, it just sucks.

If you've ever been to a race with me, you'll know one of the most important things in my prepartion is my socks...I just can't stand having cold feet cause my legs go numb, but I can't stand having my feet being too hot, cause my feet get hot and I can't climb as well when my feet are bothering me. I'm crazy about the details...shoes...if you've ever seen me try on bike shoes...it usually takes a day or two, just to pick between a 41.5 and a 42. I try them on at different times of the day with different socks, it's pretty OCD...anyways...Karine was awesome and she satyed 2 extra hours so we could hand pick everything and we really do appreciate all the attention, it makes us feel really important and who doesn't like that.

Long story short, I got a lot of socks and stuff for my feet and head and Natasha looks wicked hot in Pink Spandex...

DSJ