Old bikes vs. new bikes

I did my last race of the season on Saturday.  It was the Bonney Lake Sprint Triathlon.  Yes, the last day in August is a bit early to end my season, but I think it had to do with the previous 3 weeks.  For the first time in, oh maybe forever, I raced 4 weekends in a row.  It didn't start out that way.  I had planned to do the RAT race in Redmond in early August, and then Bonney Lake 3 weeks later.  So what happened?  David asked if we could do the Fort Lewis Olympic Tri as a relay, so I ran a 10K.  And then he asked to do the Lake Sammamish Triathlon.  And since I ALWAYS do the Bonney Lake Triathlon, well, there you go. 

As I was setting up my bike on Friday, I got a call from Bryan Brosious.  He was opting out of Bonney Lake.  Apparently, all of the 7 hour drives from Montana had taken their toll on him; that, and 12 previous races.  He said he was tired.  I definitely would have been. 

Since David had water polo practice on Saturday morning, he wasn't racing.  And since someone had to drive him to practice, Tracy wasn't going.  It was just going to be a solo journey for me, so I figured I'd do the race, load back up, and head home.  No breakfast at The Buttered Biscuit in Sumner this year. 

Saturday morning was beautiful, although a bit dark at 5:00 AM.  I loaded up and headed out to Bonney Lake, getting to the race site at around 6:15 AM... for an 8:30 AM race start.  Okay, I was a bit early, but I got a great parking spot.  Dave Tollefson spotted me immediately and said hi.  I got my race packet and set up my bike at the car, then headed into transition, saying hello to Rory Muller and chatting with him briefly.  I've been doing Rory's races since he started them, and he and his wife, Deanna, have definitely gotten it figured out.  Their races run pretty smoothly now, and Rory and Deanna do a nice job with thinking about the participants.  As I racked my bike, Drew Magill showed up with his P5.  It's a nice bike... a REALLY nice bike.  I realized that my beloved P3 is now 8 years old, and that, despite all of the newer bikes around, I really don't have any need or desire to change bikes.  Mark Doane showed up soon after with his P4.  While Drew was racked next to me, Mark was on the next rack over.  It would have been fun to have Mark on the same rack, so that we would have had a P3, P4, and P5 next to each other.  Oh well, here's a picture of the P3 with Drew's P5 in the background:

Even though there was still a lot of room on the rack, Mr. Felt (next to me) decided that he REALLY needed to rack his bike right on top of my transition towel.  It was kind of strange, but whatever.

I saw Paul Palumbo shortly after.  He asked me to look at his bike after the race, because he found a crack in the frame and wondered if he needed to replace it.  He has a QR TiPhoon that is about the same age as my P3.  What seemed strange was that it is titanium, and it had cracked.  That just isn't right.

And then I saw Karen Antonowicz and little Lucas.  Karen had mentioned that Bruce needed to do the Bonney Lake race to A) defend his title; and B) go out to The Buttered Biscuit.  So, it looked like I was going out to breakfast after the race after all.  I saw Bruce, and kidded him about coming out of retirement.  He smiled, but had his game face on already.  He looked intent on defending his title.

The race went well for me, except for the swim.  As usual, I was in the scrum, and then, for the first time ever, somebody managed to yank my goggles off of my head around 150 yards into the swim.  This was very odd, since it is difficult to do, because I put my goggles on under my swim cap.  So, I lost probably 15-20 seconds getting them back on and then proceeded on and finished.  I got on my bike and headed out, hammering the entire way, since I knew I had some catching up to do.  I passed a fair amount of Olympic racers, but was passed by two sprint racers early on who flew by me, which was another unusual event.  I guess they were even worse swimmers than I am.   I got back to transition, and traded my bike for my running shoes.  Because the bike course is set up as a loop, I had no idea what place I was in, but I knew I needed to run fast.  I caught Paul heading out of transition and told him to run with me.  I got a grunt in reply, and figured that I was on my own.  Karen saw me soon after and took this picture:

I caught Dave Tollefson soon after that, and his comment was, "What took you so long?"  And then I caught Bryan Hoon climbing up the first big hill, and his comment was, "You passed me in the same spot last year."  I couldn't really say much to either of them, because I was working as hard as I could and sucking air in a big way.  I basically just said, "Nice job," and kept plugging away.  Just short of the 2 mile mark, I heard some footsteps, and looked back to see a tall, thin young man moving up on me.  I hit the branch point for the Sprint/Olympic race and went straight while he turned left.  And then just after the 2 mile mark, I got passed by someone moving fast.  It was Darren Gray, who is 45 and so in my age group.  I realized that I had lost at least 1 place, because he was flying, and I wasn't.  Turns out I finished 2nd in my AG to Darren. 

Throughout the bike and run, I felt dead and couldn't go any harder.  After looking at my results, I knew why.  Despite my lack of training this year, my bike and run splits were the fastest I've ever gone at Bonney Lake.  So, maybe the 4 straight weeks of racing helped get me into better sprint shape.  I finished 8th OA and 2nd in my AG, not a bad showing, but I never saw Bruce, Drew, or Mark on the course.  They were way ahead of me.  Unfortunately for Drew, he missed the first turn on the run and ran off the course, so he DQ'd himself.  Having missed that turn myself in 2009 (the first year), I knew that it was easy to do; I was saved back then, because a spectator yelled at me and re-directed me back after only a few yards.  Bruce was able to defend his title, and Mark was 2nd, the second week in a row that Mark finished 2nd.

Picture of the 45-49 podium (as Tracy so lovingly needles me, I am First Loser):

On Tuesday, I had been reading about questions regarding new bikes, such as the Cervelo S5 and new S3.  When I got home, I decided to go for a ride, and grabbed my road bike, which is now nearly 18 years old.  I realized that, while there are a lot of new bikes out there, and are tantalizing, especially to David,  I have no desire (or need) to change bikes.  Drew's P5 with Di2 was really cool, but I still like the looks of my P3 better.  And my Ti Cycles Road Bike is timeless, even after 18 years, and still gives me a wonderful ride.  When I had originally had it built, I wanted a classic look, so it has a horizontal top tube and 700c wheels.  Dave Levy had suggested 650c wheels and a sloping top tube for a more compact geometry, but I didn't like that look.  And I'm definitely glad I did it that way.  It even has Campagnolo Record, which I changed from 8 speed Dura-Ace some years back.  There is something about how a classic bicycle looks that trumps all of the modern swoopy designs.

Of course, I might consider Di2 for them in the future...