My new Argon 18 E-118

At the beginning of the year I was really wanting to replace my aging Fuji Aloha 1.0 (now approximately 5 years old) with something new...especially considering I'm best at TT's and was losing time to those with nicer bikes. I know it's all about the engine but at the same time, in TT's if you have extra drag from wind resistance it costs you time.

With my crash at Kings Valley earlier in the year I had to come to the realization that getting a new TT bike wasn't going to happen since I had to replace my Tsunami. Then, my wife went to me because I was looking at purchasing a new stem...and was looking at the TT bikes in the shop and she told me to buy one. Well...I'm not one to argue with my wife so we went to a few stores and checked out a couple bikes.

I was originally looking at two bikes: The BMC TM01 and the Felt DA3. I talked with salesmen from both shops and told them a must have was changing the cranks from stock length to 170mm since I knew what worked for me. Other than that, it was a matter of finding the right size and going from there.

The shop with the Felt ticked me off...I was looking at a $5000 bike and told them my one need and he went off on how he had to check to see if it was a viable option because he had to maintain his "Margins" and needed to check with their rep to see what type of crank it had and if they could do it! Seriously??? One, you don't know what type of crank is on it? You can't just look that up in your books? Margins? It's a $5k bike, you have a lot of room for movement there.

So I moved from there knowing they didn't have my size in stock anyway and went to look at the bike I was really interested in...The BMC. At the shop they were more than willing to change out cranks for me and we had a deal ready to go, credit card pulled out...then...Oh, BMC is out of stock (nation wide) in the M/L size and all they had on the floor and shop was a small.

While I was at the shop I was looking at the Argon 18 bikes and liked them a lot. At the time I was most interested in the E-116 since it was closer to my price range. We left the shop without a bike, but I touched base with the salesman later in the week to see what the price for the E-116 would be with a different set of bars. He wrote me back with a price, but they didn't have one built up in my size...but had one there that needed to be built up.

Upon follow up...the salesman said, they couldn't get it built during the week (I e-mailed him on a Monday) because of tune-ups, fittings and other stuff. I let him know that was fine, but was a bit dumbfounded as I was sitting there ready to buy a $4k+ bike and he's wanting me to sit around and wait for them to build it up.

Well...the week passed and no communication from the salesman...During the wait period I started doing research and found an online shop that had the E-118 with full SRAM Red components for $5375 and just couldn't pass it up. So with no communication from either shop...I ordered the bike and they had it built up and to me within a week. The only problem I had with the build were these: The built it up with the bars in the upright position (so I had to reverse them) and they didn't shorten the aero extensions which had to be 2+ feet long. I had to literally cut 1 foot off of each bar to get them within acceptable reach.

So, I decided to not ride the night it came in and get to work on the bike so it would be fit correctly and ready to ride. After four hours, I had finally got all the kinks worked out and it was built up. I did end up switching saddles to my main brand of Selle San Marco Glamour Aspide (though I could see switching to a Specialized Toupe down the road).

I was able to take it out on Thursday for it's first spin. Initial impressions is that it's a much faster bike than my old Fuji. The fit is a little different as it's a little shorter than my old bike, but that's actually a good thing.

With my fit I have the bars lower than my Fuji, but the saddle in the same forward position. With the bars lower, I brought them back toward me so my elbows are closer to my knees which gives me more of a 90 degree angle between my body and upper arm and at my elbow, where as before they were stretched out a little more. It also allowed me to narrow my elbow width a little more which I wanted to do, but couldn't on my old bike.

The end result is more of a pro look...but more importantly a nice flat back, that still has a very good hip angle that allows me to produce a lot of power while in the aero bars.

The bike it's self absorbs chip seal roads well, but is a little harsh over sharper impacts. The handling is quick while in the drops, but is more stable in the aero bars. The braking is better than expected given all I've heard about TT bikes and their brakes. Even the rear brake has good lever feel, modulation and power. 

I did have to raise the saddle by nearly 1" from these pictures to get proper leg extension. So my saddle to bar drop is closer to 14cm now, which is much more than on my old Fuji.

On it's first ride, without trying I set two Strava KOM's on flat segments around here (averaging around 27 mph on the flats with no aero gear, but a 4-5 mph tailwind)...and I wasn't pushing it since it was a recovery ride. As I said...the bike is fast :)

I'm looking forward to getting some more miles on it and racing it at the State ITT Championships this year...hopefully I can improve on my 54:08 time of last year.

OBRA RR Championships Day 2...Epic Fail

Yesterday was the state Road Race Championships Day 2 here in Oregon. They split them up into two days, one for category racing and the other for age racing...yesterdays was age category racing. I race in the 40-49 category, which can be a very fast category since half the field are CAT 1/2's and regularly compete in those races. When they get to race in a masters race it's generally easier for them, and harder for everybody else because the distances are shorter for them and longer for us...and the pace is higher for those not used to racing in a 1/2 race.

Last week I was liking the forecast with temps int he mid 60's. The Day 1 race was hot with temps int he mid 80's and it took it's toll on lots of riders. As the week moved along the expected temps crept up and up with the forecast ending up being mid 80's again but higher humidity (it was in the upper 40% to low 50% which is very muggy for Oregon).

I knew this would take a toll on me as the race went on, but I figured I'd give it my best shot. I'm not much of a pack racer and like getting out on breaks as I'd rather die a hard death than sit in all day and finish mid pack...and every masters race I've been in has been won in a break.

Going into the day my legs felt OK, but not great. I was a few pounds lighter than Day 1 races, but I knew I was still going to struggle on the climbs as this course was tough with few/no flat sections, lots of small rollers and one short steeper climb and one longer shallower climb (both tougher than they looked on paper).

The race started and I tried to stay up front to watch for breaks. A few tried to get away during the first mile but were all brought back in. About 8 mile into the race there was an attack that was brought back and immediately followed by a counter attack. I followed both and the counterattack opened up a gap that allowed four of us to get away.

As we hit the climb a few miles down the road we had opened up about 1 minute on the field and were working well together. Near the top of the climb...BAM, one of the riders tires blew out so we were down to three riders. This in the end, likely hurt me because I didn't get as much rest during the rotation, but I pushed on and did my best to help the other two put distance on the field.

We stayed away from two laps before a small chase group of four caught us...but by this time the combination of high temps (my Garmin registered as high as 94 degrees several times), hard pulls and no break on the course...my legs were toast. I lost contact on the main climb and dropped back a bit, but kept the leaders in sight to the top of the climb, only losing about 20 seconds by that time.

When I got to the bottom of the downhill I knew my legs were toast. I couldn't get any power going and another 5 minutes or so down the road, the remnants of the main field caught up to me. I tried to latch onto that field to finish the last 16 miles of the race...but couldn't get enough accelerate over the small rollers and quickly dropped off. Crossing the finish line I gave my self a DNF...my first ever voluntary DNF!

In the end it was a good decision though. Looking at the results 1/2 the 40-49 group took a DNF...it was a HARD race.

Watching fields go by as I was packing up there was never a solid group of more than about 10 racers together...fields were shattered in every class. The eventual winner of my class was one of the guys I was out in a break with...2nd place was a guy that bridged the gap (Both CAT 1/2 racers).

I feel good about my effort because I was out front and at one point had nearly 2.5 minutes on the field...Hit my limit right at about 2 hours (45'ish miles), which is somewhat normal for me. If the race had only been 3 laps instead of 4, I could have pushed it and probably made it on the podium...but the extra lap put the nail in the coffin for me.

It was a good race overall and I'm happy with my effort...but am feeling it today.

Now it's time to train for the Individual Time Trial championships in August...lots of 2x20's and hill work on my TT bike. I really want to break 53 minutes over 40k if the weather is good, but my goal is to break 53:30 which will put me at an average speed around 28 mph...If only I could afford a new, much more aero TT bike than my old Fuji...but you race what you've got :)

OBRA TTT Championships 2012

Today was the State Team Trial Championships, my favorite race of the year. It's such a great racing format because you need to work as a team to win.

It's a lot of suffering because it's not a traditional time trial where you get into a rhythm and crank out steady watts. It's not like a crit because it's not all hard accelerations, but is similar in that there are a lot of VO2 max efforts and it's not like a road race where you can hide in the pack the whole time drafting off others.

It's an hour of suffering!

This year was a new course and instead of doing 3.8 laps it was a single 28.8 mile loop. So, not only did we not have to do laps, we also got to do another 1.5 miles of racing with a little hillier terrain to ride.


The race took place in Brownsville, OR and was well organized and they chose some fantastic roads to ride on. The weather was great with temps in the low 60's, winds in the 3 mph range and just a small amount of drizzle near the end of the race, but nothing that stuck to the road.

Being on a new team that's not dominated by time trialists like my old team was for a while, I didn't know what to expect out of my teammates who a mostly road racers. My teammates were Tony Coca, Shawn Cecotti and Stephan Niquet.

We all arrive, set up, warmed up and lined up to race. We didn't have a chance to practice before the race so it was all new for us as far as working as a team, strengths and weaknesses, etc. I knew my fitness was good after last weeks PIR TT and figured I could do a lot of pulling if needed.

When the race started it took a few seconds to get everybody clipped in and rolling...but once moving I quickly bumped the speed up into the 29-30 mph range and took a 2-3 minute pull. From there we went into rotations with each rider figuring out what they could do/not do. When we hit the hilly section we became separated for a short while and I had to slow down to regroup with the team.


In the corners we did fairly well given no practice, only falling apart in about 2-3 corners where we slowed down a fair amount.

In the end we pulled in a time of 1:02:33 (though OBRA scored everybody 5 minutes fast, not sure how that happened...the time gaps were accurate, but the actual times were smoking fast) over 28.8 miles for an average speed of around 27.6 mph.

We won the CAT 3 class (my 4th straight time on a TTT championship winning team) and had the 2nd fastest time on the day of all classes.

Needless to say...it was a good day :) Now I get to order Championship gear again that was redesigned this season.

PIR Time Trial #2

First off...I love this race. It's on a closed course with smooth pavement, no traffic and no more than 35 or so racers on a 1.9 mile course at any given time.

The first race went well, but the wind conditions were tough with a headwind on the main (open) straight away and a tail wind on the backside (guarded by trees). I had a good time that day with a similar time to what I ran last year.

Between the first race here this season and this race I made some changes to my TT fit that included: 1.5cm longer stem, 5mm more drop in the bars, 170mm cranks (down from 172.5) and a different seat post that allowed me to level out the seat post.

I made these changes before the Raven ITT #2 and set a PR on the course by 38 seconds, but that was a hilly course, so I was excited to see if the difference helped on a flat course like PIR.

The weather conditions were good with temps in the low 60's, a small tailwind on the front straight and a good turnout of racers.

Overall, I felt OK but my legs were still a little sore from a hard ride on Saturday. During warm up on my trainer my legs were a little dead, but by the 3rd interval they started to feel a little better. Lining up for the start they felt OK, but could have been better.

The race it's self went well...I was able to keep my HR in the low 160's which was a few beats lower than the last race at PIR, but right in the range of where I'd like it. With the change in wind direction I felt like I was able to take the corners a little faster than last time which led to a smoother race overall.

In the end...the position changes made a big difference. I was able to shave off 40 seconds from my PR that I set last year running a 24:34 over 11.5 miles for my first individual time trial that I averaged over 28 mph (28.07 mph average). I had to wait for the results to be posted but I ended up 1st in the 40+ category for my 2nd win of the year and had the 6th fastest time on the day (5th fastest rider as one in front of me raced twice).

It was a good day and I feel both my position on my bike and form are starting to come together for the first time of the year.

OBRA RR Championship Day 1

First off, this race was tougher than the profile looked.


With that said, I felt OK heading into the race, had an easy week on the bike with two rest days near the the end of the week (Wednesday and Friday) and warming up my legs felt OK (not great but OK).


The combined 4 fields into one for this race: CAT 3, CAT 3 40+, CAT 3 50+ and CAT 3 60+. It looks like there were a little over 60 people in the field and with fairly narrow roads it made it hard to move around in the pack. For the most part the only place to move safely was during the main climb, but since I'm not a climber, it was difficult for me to position myself well enough for each climb.

At the start of the race I was in a short break-away attempt. About 7 of us were off the front for about 4 miles before we hit the first real climb, but it fizzled out shortly after that as the peloton picked up the pace and chased us down as we slowed on the climb.

From there on I kept trying to stay with the pack on the two main climbs...the second of which was much harder than expected. Normally on climbs like these I don't struggle as I can sit in the draft and get help up the climb...this time however, I didn't have a problem up the climb the first two times but struggled the 3rd time up.

Coming in to the finish on the 3rd lap the field was neutralized, actually stopped on the road by race officials. They wanted to notify the field that we were not supposed to cross the yellow line on a corner after a long, fast downhill that went into a near 270 degree turn. The problem here is at the start, they told us we had both lanes for that turn.

Once under way again, I knew I was tired...but stayed with the field until we hit the first climb again, where my legs told me they were done for the day. I couldn't hold pace and the field rode away at that point. My last lap ended up being a full 10 minutes longer than my fastest (2nd) lap of the day.

While on the course I was talking with another rider who was in a break with me earlier this year and we both agreed that the field was too large for the roads we were racing on, which made for some sketchy riding. The only time they opened up was on the last lap when 1/2 the field was dropped and strung out because of the heavy attacks taking place.

Regardless...at the pace we were riding at I wasn't going to hold on for 4 laps anyway. I've found that my overall limit with road races is about 2.5 hours...after that my legs tend to blow out on me. Up to that point, I'm pretty strong...My legs went at about the 2.5 hour mark, which is about normal...The race was just under 64 miles and took me just over 3 hours to finish (69 miles with warm-up).

Overall...not a great day on the bike, but no crashes and a completed race without any major obstructions. On the day I ended up 17th, which is OK, but not where I would have liked to have been. Next month they have the 40+ open race and I may go race it, but given the length and how I felt during this race I may or may not race it. I'll make that decision as it gets closer.

Next race up will be the PIR TT #2...of which I'm interested to see how the changes to my position effect my flat land speed, since this race is nearly pan-flat. It should be a good test of my legs and bike.

Montinore Road Race

So, I decided to do this race because it's basically in my back yard and have done these roads a lot. For the most part, the course (really a circuit race) fit my abilities. I knew the climb would be tough, but if I could pack slide...I'd be fine.

The race started off well enough and I was able to hold position through the first lap to the climb, which was good given the narrow roads.

When we hit the climb I was able to hold my own and actually make up some ground near the top. Over the top with the full road open I was able to move up to the front of the pack, where I wanted to be.

At this point, I was able to cover attacks, do some pulling and be in great shape for the next time up the climb...or so I thought.

Heading into the sharp left hand turn I was on the far left (inside) of the turn, which should have been good position for the climb. The just ahead and to my right a couple riders rubbed wheels which caused chaos in the field. Everybody moved to the left, which was toward me. The next thing I know riders are cascading toward me and one completely cuts me off causing me to come to a complete stop.

During this stop other riders were able to get around the outside of the road and continue up the hill.

By the time I got moving I had lost approximately 20 seconds and not being a climber...wasn't going to make up any ground. Over the top, the main group hit it pretty hard and by the time I got to the top I was a good 40-50 seconds back.

Given that I know the roads well...I went into TT chase mode and hammered trying to catch back on. I could see I was slowly gaining ground on the pack and caught back up to them with a little over a mile to go before we hit the climb for the 3rd time. The chase took about 11 minutes and I averaged 350 watts to latch back on (averaging 22.8 mph).

When we hit the hill, I thought I was OK, but could tell my legs were starting to tie up and since I was already in the back, I couldn't pack slide. I ended up losing the pack with about 300 meters to go before the top of the climb and ended up dropping about 30 seconds behind.

I kept chasing the pack hoping to latch on again...but just couldn't quite pull them in on the 4th lap and lost them once they hit the climb. This chase I averaged right at 310 watts (averaging 21.6 mph).

At this point, I just wanted to finish the race and hopefully pick off other riders that were dropped off the main field during the race. Over time, I did pick off a few riders and worked together with another on lap #7 (of 8), which helped finish the race a little quicker.

In the end, I got in a lot more TT work and aside from the stoppage on the climb had a good race. I ended up 29th out of 35 I think, so not all was lost.

This weekend is the first of two State Championship Road Races (they have a category race and an age bracketed race). I'll be competing in the CAT 3 40+ category and the course looks to suit my abilities well...so we will see if I can finally pick up some luck in a road race and get a good race/finish in.

Raven TT #2

Between last weeks race and this weeks race I was able to pick up a new seat post (cheap Performance Brand) and swap out cranks, going from 172.5mm to 170mm cranks to make the final needed changes to my TT set up.

My old seat post was a reversed Ritchey, but didn't quite have enough room to get the saddle level which made the front of the saddle raise up a few degrees, which was uncomfortable on longer rides/races. The new saddle...though originally did the same thing...lets me have full range of motion regardless of which way it's placed in the seat post (I had to file down a nub on each side to do this).

This gives my bike an effective seat tube angle of 78 degrees. The stock STA on my Fuji is 76 degrees and using the reversed seat post gives me 2cm of extra forward saddle placement...thus giving me an approximate 2 degrees extra of STA.

As for the cranks...most people tend to go longer with their cranks on TT bikes...so it's a bit counter-intuitive going to shorter cranks. The reasoning for shorter cranks is this:

1. I have short femurs and shorter cranks work better for me
2. Shorter cranks reduce the amount of flex in the knee, thus keeping your power stroke better (more bend = less power).
3. Shorter cranks allow me to raise my saddle just a little which helps with hip angle

When I made the changes to the bike and took it for it's initial spin around the block...it finally, just felt "Right". This was a good sign. I then took it out for 2.5 hours on Wednesday to make sure saddle height, fore/aft positioning, etc. were correct and did a trip up Pumpkin Ridge to see how it felt under power for an extended period of time. As it turns out with my saddle a little low I set my fastest time (on my TT bike) up Pumpkin Ridge by about 1.5 minutes.

So...The Raven TT #2 was it's first real test under full, race conditions.

The conditions were a bit trickier than last week with more wind that seemed to be a head wind on the way out with a cross wind on the way back. Most people were turning in times similar to last week, so it couldn't have made too much of a difference overall.

The end result was I ran a 28:14 which was a PR by 28 seconds on this course and 36 seconds faster than last week. The bike also felt really good, especially on the flats where I was able to push a bigger gear and was more comfortable.

Looking at the results again, it appears they changed...I moved up into 1st place by 2 seconds for my first win of the season.

It should be interesting to see if I'm any faster at the PIR TT that takes place on Memorial Day this year.

Overall...I still took 2nd in the Masters 40+ class and had the 9th (?) fastest time on the day (though one was a tandem and an other was by the same guy racing two classes). But I feel good about the effort because my fit feels pretty dialed in, I think I could have gone a good 10 seconds faster and I set a PR on the course by a large margin.