Belgium 2005, entry 3

Well, I was closer than the last time. Baby steps, I keep telling myself. I guess moving slow in the right direction is better than not progressing at all. I lasted a little over 2 hours in the Kortemark Kermis, before the officials ended our small splinter group. I feel that I raced very smart and stayed out of the wind quite a bit. I was always thinking about where the wind was coming from and how much I was eating and drinking. I was using less energy in sprints out of the corners by staying closer to the bike ahead of me and also by using a slightly smaller gear. I think I really did race with a lot of brains. But where was my brawn? Everything in life requires balance, and kermis racing is no exception. I could race extremely smart everyday and fail to finish just because I didn't take that one chance that would put me up the road. I'm still trying to find that balance: Brains vs. Brawn.

In other news, I'm getting a new bike! Not entirely because I want one, but more because I need one in order to get a proper fit. I went to Frans Vanmarcke, the bike fit specialist, and left his house with quite a problem. After a couple hours of measuring my body and computing the proper sizes for my bike, he began to measure the tubes and angles of my current setup. I knew something was very wrong by the face he made after measuring my seat tube. Apparently my seat tube is 5cm too short, which is too big of a length to fix with a different seatpost, saddle, and stem. The measurements he computed for the proper frame for my body would be almost impossible to find in a frame without getting it custom made. I should, however, be able to find something very close. He said that there was no way to give me a good fit on the frame I had; the interesting fact is that my top tube length was perfect! It just goes to show that top tube length is not the only thing to look at in choosing a frame. So now I am getting a Granville, which will be much better for my body size. I can't wait to get it all set up with a perfect position by the same man who fit Eddy and Axel Merckx, Nico Mattan, Tom Steels, and many other Belgian Stars! -VR