What Blanco Suave Rides (slowly)

Here's the bikes I likes.
This is the new baby. I wanted Mike to make me a steel cross frame and fork based around the Paul Components Racer brake. I like how low pro they are. This bike will see limited use as the pit bike during cross season, but mostly it will be for gravel road rides and commuting. It rides a bit more softly than my race rig, which is what what I wanted. I already love this bike. It is going to get way too much saddle time.





This is the race rig. Ti, light and sexy. It's stiff and tough and with the single ring, all about business. It tops out at just over 18lbs., which for my fat ass, is plenty light. I don't know about the carbon hoops, but they look cool. The Dugasts that are on there are the bees knees, though. I have a set of Kings laced Mavic ceramic Reflexes that I can run should the need arise, like at PIR this December.

Stops and Starts

I feel like I’m playing a giant real life game of red light/green light. I’ve been getting all geeked up for cross season and now that it’s here, one thing or another is keeping me from getting in the racing groove. Family commitments, work commitments, house and car work, etc., etc. I really like this time of year when I can just worry about the races on the weekends. Every weekend. I do well with racing consistently.

Blanco Suave isn’t one of the Oscar Freire types that just shows up at the big dance and lays waste.

No I’m more of the Boonen type that need to race into fitness.

I respond better to old adage that nothing gets you more prepared for racing than racing.

I’ve been able to postpone the impending feeling of doom by telling myself that I’m wanting to peak later in the year. But it’s coming up on November and I only have one cross race under my belt. Last I checked, I’m not going to Belgium for all of December and January, so the late part of the season is coming on fast for me and there hasn’t been much of an early or middle part of the season.

I’m hoping that the weather will turn into the proper NW shit storm that it usually does. Not that I love racing in the grime, but I tend to deal with the circumstances better than others. I love it when I overhear racers complaining about the cold and wet. It means that much fewer people to worry about. I’m also hoping that all of the racers that have been tearing it up week after week up until now are starting to fade in motivation. I can’t be the only asshole who realizes that you can only ignore your family, friends, and ever-shrinking wallet for so long. That’s the other nice thing about the wet and nasty. Repairs to your equipment tend to get more expensive and it takes longer to keep everything running. Further ruining motivation and making getting the always needed kitchen pass harder.

So basically, Blanco Suave’s plan for cross domination depends on the failure of every one else. Notice I haven’t once mentioned my own fitness or skills. No, I tend to prefer to bask in the schadenfreude of cross racing.

Why torment myself with my own failings when Blanco Suave can delight in the suffering of others? That must be the reason that the races bring out so many “Spectators” (hecklers).