Well apparently I missed all the excitement yesterday on the morning training ride. Apparently Howard and someone else (I forget which one) were battling to see who could inflict more pain on the group. Then at some point The Donald dropped his chain. As he was coasting along trying to coax it back onto the chainring with the front derailleur, it must have come off the lower jockey wheel in back. So, when he got it back on the chainring and stood on it, the derailleur went into the spokes, the wheel locked up and riders behind him headed for the grass. The Donald then skidded to a stop, wearing through his rear tire in the process and blowing out the tube. He was lucky, too. Usually when that happens, the derailleur rips the derailleur hanger right off the dropout. In this case, the derailleur exploded in to four pieces instead, so the hanger was only slightly bent. He ended up needing a new tire, a few new spokes, and a new derailleur. Luckily, nobody went down and the guys at the shop were able to bend the hanger back into alignment. He was out riding with us this morning and commented that it felt like a new bike with the crisp new derailleur and all.
It was a relatively fast ride this morning, for a Friday. Don't know what got into everybody, but we had a nice steady ride at 23-24 most of the way. As I was waiting for the ride to start this morning, chatting with Margaret, a runner came by on the path. He asked us "how far does the pavement go?" It took both of us a little by surprise, and we had to chuckle when we replied "about 20 more miles." I wonder how far he went?
It's getting to be time for me to tear down the Cervelo and do some much-needed maintenance. After the ride in the rain the other day, the right brake lever is sticking pretty badly. Yesterday I sprayed the heck out of it with Triflow, but it didn't help. I pulled the cable out real quick this morning, but it looked fine, so I just wiped it off and put it back. The lever itself seems pretty stiff, and there's always a lot of drag in the cable as it follows the curve of the handlebar under the tape, so I think I'll have to tear it all down and clean it all up to get it working right again. I think that the return spring on the left shifter has recently broken too. The right one broke about a year ago and so I've been using a little rubber band to keep it up against the back side of the brake lever. I'm sure they both succumbed to the combination of sweat and humidity. I think it's finally time to rebuild both of those levers and shifters. I shouldn't complain; they've gone around 36,000 miles or so without much attention. It'll all have to wait until after Sunday's race, though. I learned a long time ago not to go messing with my bike right before a race unless absolutely necessary.
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