The bike was a total bargain because an HK distributor got stuck with the bike in his inventory and he was more than happy to find the actually there was a crazy guy willing to pay it even at rock bottom price and even assembly it by himself...
I bought it and carried to Dongguan because I found quite interesting the idea to have a bike which could face the badly paved secondary roads in China and also some light gravel roads, etc... So I could enjoy riding both off-road and in-road with the same bike here and also avoid dragging around the MTB.
But probably the main reason was sentimental: when I was young, I was crazy about cycle-cross and it was my total cycling love... in Summer I was just dragging around on road or MTB races or only to wait end October when the Cross season kicked off.
I avoid being too nostalgic and posting tons of photos of that era, but at least one is deserved
Italian Senior Open Champs 7/1/1988 (basically the Elite race).. I had just turned Senior by 7 days and I was training mainly on fast and flat courses for 40' races...... I can still remember that course: on the slopes of a mountain resort, the climbs looked like walls (as you can see from my face in total agony) , so steep that the front wheel would touch the ground when I was carrying it on the shoulder...
So jump ahead 22 years and today I forked my new bike for the first time and headed straight on the long climb here in Dongguan: I was a bit beaten up from yesterday's workout and it was quite daring to attempt the climb with the smallest gear of 36x26, while on MTB I was usually cruising up with the 24x20 or 32x30...
It happens that the climbs had really hard spots and with the 36x26 I was really struggling, so I really had to take it easy on the less demanding sections...
luckily the road is being gradually improved, so it is no more the bumby road of few months ago, but a very smooth gravel with concrete sections.
Anyway, here the result:
12/Nov: 41'55" - HR avg: 168 - max 181 (MTB bike, road was in worse conditions)
2/Sept: 44'09" - HR avg: 168 - max 181 (MTB, totally dirt road, no paved sections yet)
Lastly, it is worth mentioning that going down a steep gravel road with a cycle-cross bike may reserve some emotions, since the brakes are more suited for easy stops in a muddy field
1 comment:
Nice photo!
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