I’ve been talking about getting a road bike for a long time now. After reading an email I got from Jeff I started looking for one seriously. Jeff bought a Peugeot and his email made it sound AWESOME. I’ve never ridden a road bike more than a lap around the parking lot. I told Ron, my bike dealer, about it and in typical Ron fashion he said, “I’ve got the perfect bike for you!” I went by the shop and he showed me the Surly Cross Check. It is a cyclocross bike. while test riding it I turned to Ron and said, “You know this is the furthest I’ve ever ridden on a Road bike”. Ron smiled, he said, “Go ahead, attack this hill. See how it responds.” I stood on the pedals and the bike took off. I was sold.

Much like the trials bike I’m amazed that the bike makes that much of a difference. I didn’t realize how sluggish the mountain bike was on the road. Pedaling a full suspension bike with low pressure in the 2.1 knobby tires is much more work. My first ride I accidentally road 35-40 miles. Like Jeff, I don’t think I’ll ever ride my Mountain Bike on the road again. This thing is FAST. Fast and responsive. I mash the pedals and the bike lurches into action. It begs to be ridden hard. The weird thing is, I need to learn how to ride road. Ridding MTB and Trials, I understand. Technically I am strong on a MTB. Trials, I gotta long way to go. Road, however, I’m totally green. It is on!

I’ve decided (we’ll see if this actually happens) to ride in the Hotter‘n Hell 100. This is a ride I read about years ago. It sounded so hard core and so brutal, I wanted to do it. HH 100 is a 100 mile ride late August in Wichita Falls Texas. The combo of extreme heat and high winds makes this ride well, it makes it Hell. I figure if I start training and stick with it, I should be able to do it no problem. Right now I feel as though I’m fairly out of shape. If I can ride 35-40 miles now, who knows what I can do when I get in shape. My biggest obstacle is myself, my laziness, my procrastination. Part of me wishes I was unable to ride 35-40 miles. I have it in my head that I don’t need to train too much. I’m thinking, “Oh yeah, I could do 100 miles next week.” I have to remind myself 100 miles is 5 hours on a bike if I average 20 mph. Yeah, that’s more than I can do. If I can do a 100 miles in 7 hours, averaging 14.5 mph, I’ll be happy. Still that’s 7 hours on a bike. I doubt I could do a 7 hour ride next week. I need to train.

So what am I doing to prepare? Well I am going to try to ride four times a week. I’m watching videos of Tony Hawk, Mat Hoffman, Paris to Roubaix, Marathons, and of course Lance Armstrong. Next time you talk to me remind me I want to ride the Hotter’n Hell 100. Give me a hard time if I haven’t been riding!