Specialized TriCross 2006 58cm For Sale

I'm upgrading my cyclcross bike, so I'm selling my TriCross. It was my first cyclocross bike which I purchased at River City bike shop in 2006. It's a fantastic bike for someone looking for their first cross bike or a seasoned racer looking for a pit bike. Drop me an email at paul.formiller@comcast.net if you'd like to take it for a test ride. Asking $600 for it or make an offer.

A few highlights on the bike.

• the wheelset hung in my garage most of the time - only 500 miles maximum on them.

• brakes upgrade last year to Paul TouringCanti brakes - all new cables and housing - setup is "euro-style" which makes barriers much easier since back brake is on the left

• setup as a "single chain-ring" on a 36T since the front shifter is damaged and doesn't function. The front derailleur acts as an excellent chain guard. If you don't like that setup, let me know I also have some Ultegra shifters I can sell you for an upgrade.

• Link to the original specs on frame: TriCross Comp Double

• Total weight is approximately 21 lbs.

Here's the component details.....

• FRAMESET: Specialized A1 Premium Aluminum, double-butted tubing
• REAR DERAILLEUR: Shimano Ultegra RD-6600
• FRONT DERAILLEUR: Shimano 105 FD-5501
• HEADSET: FSA
• BOTTOM BRACKET: Shimano Dura-Ace SM-FC7800 upgraded in 2010
• CRANKSET: FSA Gossamer 48/36T
• BRAKES: Paul Touring Canti Brakes upgraded in 2010
• SHIFTERS: Shimano 105 - note that the front shifter won't shift into big ring - see note below about upgrading to Ultegra shifters if you'd like.
• CASSETTE: Shimano HG50-9 12/25T
• CHAIN: Shimano
• HANDLEBAR: Specialized Zertz Comp handlebar, 31.8 clamp
• STEM: FSA OS-190 31.8, 120mm +/-6degrees
• TIRES: Michelin Mud 2
• SEATPOST: Specialized Pavé, FACT carbon seatpost with Zertz insert, 27.2mm
• SADDLE: Specialized Body Geometry Avatar, microfiber, gel padding, hollow Cr-Mo rails
• PEDALS: CrankBrothers Eggbeaters upgraded in 2009
• WHEELSET: Roval Classique Pavé, aluminum double wall rim, machined sidewalls, with stainless eyelets, hubs are Roval Classique Pavé, spokes are DT Stainless 14g – less than 500 miles on these wheels – hung in garage most of life

Other 9 speed components available if you'd like: Ultegra shifters, an extra rear derailleur, a couple extra cassettes. These items are sold separately (off my previous road bike).

PacCrest Long Course Triathlon

I decided to participate in some triathlons this year for some "base training" before cross season. Here's alittle report on the PacCrest Long Course event I did this past weekend.



SWIM:
I swam in high school and I've been doing alot of swimming in the pool. However, I learned that open water swimming is a whole different thing. I did a few open water swims before the Portland Tri Club "mock tri", but I discovered a mass start is a whole different thing. After that "learning experience" I did some training swims and completed the Hagg Lake Swim and Blue Lake triathlon for some more experience. Well, the first part of the swim at PacCrest was still a bit of a "challenge". P robably a mixture of the cold water (60F) and the altitude. I finally settled down into my stroke after the 1st buoy. Finished with a 42:00 swim - not too far off my 40 minute target. I will say that it's a beautiful lake to swim. The skyline view of snow covered mountains you see while taking a breath is awesome.


BIKE:
The course took you from Wickiup Reservoir over to the Cascade Lakes highway, over Mt Bachelor and down into Sunriver. A total of 58 miles or so. I was verify familiar with the climb since I"ve done the Cascade Classic a couple times. However, the strategy is ALOT different. There's that half marathon afterwards that you need to save some gas in the tank for. The road was lined with 10' snow banks towards the top, so that was an awesome sight. I road my Corsa wheels, so no PT for pacing. I was "guessing a 2:40 bike time and ended up with about 2:51. I'm happy with that. Any harder and I would have totally died on the run.





RUN:
OK, this is part I was concerned about. I've only started running in January, so I don't have too much running mileage in the legs. During training, I was finding that anything over 10 miles was a killer to recover from since I just didn't have the experience. At Blue Lake, I found that I can run great for a 10k in the Olympic distance and finish strong. So, I really wasn't sure what was going to happen with a 1/2 marathon after a 58 mile bike. I was hoping to beat a 2 hour time.The transistion off the bike went fine. After a mile or so, I was putting out a decent pace of 8.5-9 min/mile. I walked through the water stations every mile (just like many folks). I knew the tough part would be coming up. The route followed the bike path trails through Sunriver. The first 8 miles were in the trees and I was feeling good.Then, I got to the "dead zone" about mile 8 or so. That's when the path heads out to the stables and there's no tree cover. This year, we were lucky and the temperatures were in the mid 70s. However, it still got much hotter in that direct sun light. The legs started to ache, my feet were killing me, and the gel and liquid in my stomach were starting to rumble. Luckily some friends came by on their bikes to cheer me on. I started brief walks alittle more often and saw the 5:30 stretch goal time fade away and I was mustering all I could to keep the "lead leg shuffle" going. The crowd kept me motivated to "run" that last mile and I finished with a 2:04 run time and 5:44:44 overall time (16th out of 44 folks in the M40-44 division).Overall, a great race experience. I'd recommend it if you're looking for alittle extra variety in your endurance training.




Now it's time to get these aero bars off and enjoy some Saturday ride slug-fests with the PV race team.




Link to results: http://www.racecenter.com/results/2011/res_ct11.htm

Cross Crusade - Rainier

In the past, the course at Rainier has treated me well. The course isn't super technical, lots of room to pass, and there's a good climb at the end of each lap. A good fitness course. It's also been dry the past few years, so that makes it less technical.

Well, this year was quite different. It rained considerably the few days before the race and it was a mud pit in sections. It stopped raining in the morning and the sun came out. By my race at 1140am the mud in the woods section dried out enough to become a very thick mess which was nearly impossible to pedal through. That meant: running. Yuck!

There was mud (photo courtesy of Victor Duong)

My start position wasn't too bad - half point in the field. We started straight up the big hill. I passed a bunch of people on that hill and had the leaders in my sight. Got to the back woods section and I was still looking good, but had to get off the bike and run like everyone else. That winded me a bunch so I eased off a bit, but didn't seem to recover very well at all. I was going full tilt to keep my position. Got to the hill the at the beginning of the 2nd lap and that's when disaster stuck. Wasn't a mechanical - it was my body.

All cross races hurt, but this was something different. I was definitely charging up the hill hard like everyone else, so definitely in the VO2 max region. However, my lungs and legs weren't doing well at all. I backed off for some recovery, but I just couldn't recover. I was losing a bunch of spots and I could tell my day was about over already. It took most of the next lap to settle down and by then I was on a joy ride.

I was not feeling good (photo courtesy of Victor Duong)

Earlier in the work week I did something I always do. When I got the call from the nice old lady at the Red Cross, I said sure I'll donate blood like I always do. Not a good idea 2 days before a cross race. I sure missed all my oxygen giving red blood cells.

So, I rode the rest of the race for fun and enjoyed the ride. Didn't really enjoy the run in the mud, but that's OK. There's always next week - Sherwood. It's got a big hill also I hear. It's was a new course last year and I haven't done it yet. Should be interesting.

Even enjoyed the bill hill (photo courtesy of Victor Duong)

Here's another awesome video by team-mate Burk Webb.....

Cross Crusade Race #2 Rainier High School from Burk Webb on Vimeo.

Cross Crusade - Alpenrose

It has begun..... the Cross Crusade series. What a turnout on Sunday. Over 1500 racers participated. Most likely the biggest cyclocross race in the world. There were ~250 kids in the kiddie race. How crazy is that.

I was pumped up for my race. Took a rest week last week since I've been training pretty hard the last 7-8 weeks in preparation. My legs felt fresh. Unfortunately, I started behind a 100 or so guys in my field since my random number draw wasn't great.

The course was new and awesome. It was quite different from the last few years since they moved a bunch of earth around the velodrome. Everyone seemed to enjoy the course. Alpenrose is definitely one of the more technical courses in the series, in my opinion. That makes it tough to pass folks. Here's a photo of me in the "pain cave" on a run-up.

I put together a Kill Stat spreadsheet that estimates how many people you passed. It's a fun way to look at results when there's a huge field. There were 135 folks in my field and about 250 on the course including the other categories racing at the same time. What a circus! But it's all good fun. Here's a photo of my butt at the finish.....

Photo courtesy of PDX Cross

Here's a way sweet video that one of my PV team-mates created - he's a professional.

Cross Crusade Race #1 Alpenrose from Burk Webb on Vimeo.

Next week is Rainer School. It's a good course for me..... lots of room to pass and a good hill to power up. My goal this year is to get call up points by getting in the top 18. This should be the course for me to do it, even if I start in 123rd place. Keep the rubber side down!

Enjoy the Ride

This past weekend Ali and I took a trip down south for the Crater Lake Century. We've been planning this ride ever since Ali completed her triathalon in June.

The ride was on Saturday, but we decided to leave PDX on Thursday so we'd have a full day to enjoy the scenery around the lake. We camped at the Mazama campground where we were lucky to find a somewhat private spot in the midst of 200 other sites. There isn't much campground selection around the National Park, so we had to go with the tourist site.

Friday morning we took our time around the campground. It was best to sleep in since it was absolutely freezing in the morning. It took a bit to warm up. Our plan was to take the boat tour on the lake. Unfortunately, getting to the ticket booth at 12pm wasn't the way to get a ticket - sold out. Well, we hiked down to the boat ramp which is the only location on the lake to access the water. We found a great rock to eat some lunch and watch others jump into the lake. Surprisingly, no one was shivering when they got out of the figid cold water, so we decided to take the plung. Here's Ali taking the leap of faith......

On Friday evening we decided to stay on Saturday night so we wouldn't have to pack up camp so early in the morning. We overheard some Pacific Crest Trail hikers getting the "we're full" speech from the corporate campsite management. We both thought that was a real bummer and invited The Fuzzy Monkey and Boots McFarland to stay at our site. It was great to hear about their great adventures on the trail and how they do it. FM was doing a straight through trip, so he started in April and should finish in September. BM is a sectional hiker, so she has done 1-2 weeks sections over the past 8 years. They called us Trail Angels for helping them out in a bind and were very appreciative. Wow, what a logistical thing to pull off and what a committment. Ali and I decided to stick with car camping and the comforts of home at camp.

The morning came quickly on Saturday since we had to leave camp at 7am. We drove down to Ft Klamath where the ride started. All the downhill driving on the way to the start was a sign of things to come.

We decided to do the metric century that only had 5000' of climbing. No big deal for me since I ride like 7-8 hours per week. However, that's alot of UP for a girl that hasn't been riding much this year (foot problems have been keeping Ali off the bike). So, I knew I had to be on my BEST behavior and sit back and ENJOY the ride.

Here's a photo of us entering the park and the open road before the major UP started......

We came from the south and passed the Mazama campground. It was a steady grind up the hill and the hill didn't let up. My bike was geared with a double chainring while Ali had the triple. This allowed her to keep a slow and steady pace. I had to slow my cadence way down since I was pushing a bigger gear. This made it a bit of a balancing act for me and since I don't have much balance it was alittle challenging at first. The roads were narrow so my front tire would start to wobble at the slow cadence. By the end I was much better at it.

The century riders headed to the west and circled the lake in a clockwise direction. We turned to the east and started the ride around the rim of the lake in a counter-clockwise direction. Our route took us over hills, past a couple of waterfalls, and through the trees a distance from the lake. I was kinda bummed that our route didn't provide the majestic views of the lake, but that was OK since we drove the entire rim the day before. Here's a photo from our turn around point at the Phantom Ship..............

We headed back the way we came to the turn-off. Unfortunately, there was still some UPhill before the turnoff. Ali was a trooper and finished off those last few hills with a vengence. The downhill to the finish was welcome sight! We caught up with a few riders on the downhill and Ali found her legs again. She was cranking up there to the front and showing the boys how to ride downhill fast.

We got down to more level ground and hit the pasture area we saw early in the morning. I jumped on the front and pulled us all through a few miles. It was a "no chain"** section of road for me. Big sky, green pastures, cute cows, and open road. It was a beautiful way to end the ride.
We enjoyed the barbacue back at the start and called the day a success. It was a good break from the fast pace of the PV race team and the "numbers" of the power meter on the trainer. All I did was "enjoy the ride".


**no chain day...... that's how Lance Armstrong refers to those extremely rare days on the bike when the pedaling just seems so effortless you swear there's no chain. They're a gift from the gods and there's no way to make them happen or even predict them.