Team McAlister

On Tuesday the thunderstorms blew through and the afternoon was pristine – crystal blue spring sky, steady breeze from due west, just a bit of coolness in the air.  Perfect.  I wrapped things at the office and dashed home with visions of a 50+ mile ride on a great route.  I was just about to swing my leg over the bike and roll when it occurred to me that at the end of Sunday’s ride, I hit a large rock with my rear tire. I decided to see if there was  any damage.  What I saw is in the pic!  YIKES!!!  About 300 miles ago, Bill at the bike shop said I had maybe 100 miles left in this tire.  I rode this tire down a 13% grade at 45 mph on Sunday at the end of a hard 36 miler that included another very technical descent that has 2 switch backs!  Not to put too fine a point on it, but I didn’t ride.  Instead, I loaded up and went straight to Chainwheel.  A new set of Continentals, AND a new chain, AND a new cassette.  Oh man!  The chain had about 3500 hard miles on it….and the cassette?  It’s my original from 3 years ago….closing in on 9000 miles.  That bright , shiny new one is an Ultegra 12-28, which is quite a change for me.  We’ll see how it works out.  And, yes I found the chunk that the rock cut into the tire.  :-)

The Ride

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