First Real Ride on the New Ciocc - Sweeet!

I was supposed to do the Lake Washington Loop w/ Dennis & Rachael yesterday, but after a night of drinking and dancing at the War Room's sing sing, that didn't happen. Actually, I was so hung over I didn't even leave the house yesterday! Good times though..

Anyway today I finally got a chance to take a real spin on my new super-bike, and damn was it a fast ride! First, some stats:

Route: "Two-lakes loop" - counter-clockwise loop that goes around Lakes Washington and Sammamish, starting and ending on Capitol Hill in Seattle. It passes through renton, issaquah, redmond, bothell, and back through seattle
Total dist: 105.6 km (~66 miles)
Total (rolling) Time: 3 hrs, 52 minutes
Avg speed: 27.7 km/h (~16.8 mph)
Max speed: 73 km/h - going east on Madison the 53x11 was FAST! Too bad it was a little wet out, I sure don't wanna wreck the new ride.

Elevation profile (minus Inglewood, which is only 400 ft or so):

The large bump in the middle of the ride is going up and over the plateau on Highway 900, from Renton to Issaquah.

The Ciocc COM 12.5 steel frame really responds well, it feels a lot stiffer than my Bianchi Eros, which is also steel. I was afraid that the higher gearing would throw off my climbing, but it seems about as hard going up climbs like Inglewood Drive (12% for .5 mi), if not a tad easier. I never used the smallest front-ring on the triple my Eros has anyway, so I'm loving the gears: 39,53 in the front, 11-23 in the back. Can you say speed?!

On the flats my speeds were at about 32-40 km/h (20-25 mph), and it felt incredibly easy to hold those speeds on the windy Sammamish River Trail. Going downhill was great too, I rarely ran out of gearing, and hitting ~45mph on Madison was probably a new top-speed for that location. Once I get to Tolt Hill Road on a dry day, my goald of 100 km/h (60mph) will be within reach!

The rain started to come down really hard when I was just about in Redmond, so the last two hours of the ride were pretty cold, but my vest kept the core pretty toasty. The climb going up 180th/Perkins way in Lake Forest Park, which is three miles long, didn't seem all that bad. And 5th Ave E. (parallel to I-5) is usually a slog at the end of the ride, but this new bike carries me around like a.... well like a decently light Italian racing bike, that's what!

(Here's the bike, btw)

140-mile weekend

Since a friend and I are doing the one-day STP this year (and we're dabbling in the local race scene too), I've been trying to pack on the miles, and keep the average speed up.

On Saturday I did the lakes washington and sammamish loop ride, and I averaged 18.5 mph on the 79 mile ride. Highway 900 in between Renton and Issaquah is my favorite part, you're totally in the country, and only 15 miles ride outside of Seattle! Who'd have thought you could see cows in a field so close to the city..

Here's the elevation profile of the two-lakes loop:


On Monday I rode out to carnation and back, and did the Tolt Hill climb twice, once going east, once going west. Going downhill on the 10% grade for a mile section, I hit 49 mph!! If only it was a longer descent, I could probably hit 50. The TT we're doing goes up the hill heading west, the hard way.

Elevation profile of the carnation ride:


The race is this Saturday, I'll certainly post how (bad) I did when it's all said and done. And here's the profile of the 3rd Carnation TT: