Stage 10 - Where the Rubber Meets the Road

Why is that whenever you travel any real distance on the road you inevitably see a single shoe laying on the side of the road somewhere? At first I wonder where the other shoe is. Then I wonder where the body was hidden. Personally, I've never lost a shoe when traveling but a lot of you out there must have since they're all over the roads. Do people dangle their feet out of car windows, a shoe gets blown off and they don't bother to retrieve it? Do they forget that they set them on the roof of the car before heading out? Someone please explain this phenomenon to me because I don't get it. This is the kind of thing that can get into your head after spending three or four hours a day cycling.

Anybody missing a shoe?

Check out the list of towns that Darin and I rode through on today's route; Germantown, Hubertus, Richfield, Slinger, Allenton, West Bend, Jackson, Rockfield, Kirchhayn, Cedarburg. Whew! Good thing that most of them are too small to have many (or any) stop lights. Although it sounds as if this was an urban route it wasn't. Check out these two shots of Darin in the fields;

Darin in the fields of green



Darin in the fields of gold

Did you catch the video of the cyclist in the Tour de France that broad-sided a big dog during yesterday's stage? It was close to what almost happened to us today. We were speeding along a beautifully winding and hilly road when out of the woods a deer sprang onto the road directly in front of us. These things happen so fast that there is little time to react and fortunately the deer thought better of standing in the road and bounded back into the woods on the opposite side of the road, otherwise we would likely have collided with it. That might have made for a fun blog entry but think of the safety factor. I mean, our bikes might have been damaged!

Speaking of bikes, I finally had a chance to clean, lube and adjust mine the other evening. It really needed it after the long miles and a couple of wet rides. I did two things in particular that made today's ride smoother and quieter than usual and that are worthy of mention; First, I took apart the rear hub because it seemed a bit sluggish and noisy (for a How-To go HERE). As soon as it was apart the problem was obvious - the lubrication had broken down. The last time I had done this I used Pedro's Dry Lube as a mineral oil substitute. That was a mistake. The Pedro's stuff, although advertised as a mineral oil substitute, was a thick, dark, goey mess after only a few thousand miles. I cleaned all of that out and replaced it with genuine mineral oil. The cassette now spins freely and you can hardly hear it.

The next change of note was a swap of tires. At the start of the Tour I threw on a new set of Vredestein Fortezza Tri Comp tires that I had not ridden before but which came highly recommended. For everyday riding they, in a word, suck. If smooth and supple are adjectives describing fine tires - these were the opposite. A harsher tire I have never ridden. They're probably good for time trials though since their recommended maximum pressure is 175 psi. So I'll save them for that. What I replaced them with was a set of Vittoria Rubino Pro tires. What a world of difference! Smooth and supple, quick and quiet. They're not quite as nice as Elvis' all-time favorites, Vittoria's Open Corsa EVO-CX, but they're close and they're half the price. If you have a bike that fits right the most important factor in your ride is a good, no, make that great, set of tires. Sure, you can ride $15.00 tires and feel good about their value but if you want a really nice ride you need to step up to a premium set. You WILL notice the difference.


The last item I have for you today is this LINK to an article in the New York Times about how you don't need to be thin to be a good cyclist. Cycling great Andy Hampsten is featured in the article (although I don't know why - he's thin).