…when I ride a bike I have never ridden before in Kona. Just got it and will be fit on it Friday. Leave for Kona Monday. Old bike: Ridley Dean, which suffered its final crash in an ill-fated attempt at a tune-up race in Branson. New bike: 2011 Shiv. I already understand the obvious cons of such a decision, so no redundancy needed. I want your predictions. Seamless and uneventful transition? A blistering bike split followed by a 5 hour marathon because of unaccustomed muscle recruitment on the new bike? A horrific crash on the descent from Hawi due to handling difficulties? Something I haven’t even envisioned yet?
Whoever most closely predicts the outcome of this moronic decision will have a $100 donation made by me to the charity of your choice!! Ties to be determined by random drawing. Good luck!!
Vicious gang beating in T1 by the ST Illuminati for violating one of the sacrosanct rules of racing (that we all violate but don’t confess to in public until after our race is ruined and we’re on the fourth page of the autopsy/race report about how we were on pace to break 9 hours until…)
.
if you are a reasonably coordinated and fit person experienced at riding bikes, then there is a 50/50 chance you are uncomfortable as hell after 50 miles or so and are out of the aerobars.
You’ll ride 112 miles sitting up holding the basebar. 14.6 of those miles you will also be standing up on the pedals because your rear end hurts so much for the saddle being 3cm off. Towards the end of the bike, you will have hip or knee pain from the seat height being totally jacked.
Of course, this is worst-case scenario.
Good luck in Kona, and don’t sweat it too much. Maybe go for a few shake out spins before the race and you’ll be fine.
Achieve a PR during the swim in anticipation of getting on the new bikeDo fair during the bike due to distracting thoughts like "Wow, don’t I look good on this ride!"Another PR during the run since you won’t be gassed due to the distracting thoughts mentioned above
My charity is GenesysWorks (trains at-risk high schoolers in IT, Engineering, or Accounting and places them with Fortune 500 companies to get them ready for college and a career)- I’ll give you the address later.
One potential outcome is that you decide you simply can’t live without my 3 year old, 30,000 mile, scratched-to-hell Felt DA, and you decide to trade me straight up after a bunch of post-race beers on Saturday night…I’ll be the one coming in about 11:55pm.
