Her graceful touch.
I get to certain parts of my training when I begin to crave his blows, especially in winter. Winter is the time of year when training is a time for reflection and spending hours on the bike. Thoughts of hill repeats and intervals don’t creep into even the dampest corners of my mind as I kit up and set out upon the road, just me and my bicycle, the rhythm, and the weather.
The rides are long, the intensity low and the lack of tactical objective is both liberating and concerning. I cherish the simplicity of this sort of riding; the weather is cold if not bad – but usually it is cold and bad. Just being on the bike means you’re training harder than most everyone else, which feels empowering. But there is a complacency that is unnerving; I’m unsettled by the question of whether I still know how to hurt myself. But this is not the time of year for me to push so hard on the climbs that I can answer that question for myself, so I begin to yearn for his hammer’s cruel blow, so I can prove that suffering is still where I thrive.
She arrives with the same abruptness that he does. La Volupté, yin to The Man with the Hammer’s yang, comes uninvited but welcome. Her visits are swift encounters, an angelic push to make the hill a bit shorter or the wind a bit less fierce. Before you realize she was there, she is gone.
But yesterday, she clung closely to me, pushing me along for the duration of my ride. The fluidity in my stroke felt other worldly, the lines I took into corners were as perfect as the gear I chose to exit them. The cadence always seemed in harmony with the terrain. I felt blissful joy at being on my bicycle.
Then the rain began to fall, lashing at me and chilling me to the bone. The sound of the rain rapping on my helmet was motivation; the sound of the spray from my tires onto my downtube was confirmation of my speed. I felt her next to me, acting as my personal conduit to The V. I pushed harder, I rode faster. But still I felt only the fluidity of the pedals spinning beneath me and the steady breath in my lungs. I was outside myself, an observer. Whatever was happening on the bicycle was going to happen with or without me.
The Man with the Hammer and La Volupté; bonded together as Pain and Grace. Pain is easy to recognize, easy to process, and easy to conquer. Grace, on the other hand, is elusive and easily mistaken. I have not felt so good on a bicycle for as long as I can recall, possibly ever. I work hard to be the best rider I can be, and the sport repays me in equal measure of what I put in. That is the beauty of it, the harmonious symmetry of dedication to a craft.
Yesterday, it was different. I was paid something forward, and I will not forget it. Vive la Vie Velominatus.
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@minion @Owen
The man with the hammer "touched" my rib a couple of weeks ago when I crashed on my first day skiing. Breathing became agony, used the rollers instead, but I hope to be riding tomorrow again.
@frank
I love your Shimano Pro Vibe stem. And I love your 3T handlebars. I know there isn't a rule, but should there be one about mixing and matching cockpit components? I mean, ideally shouldn't stem, handlebars, and seat post all match, i.e., be the same manufacturer?
BTW, your handlebar finishing tape job doesn't fucking suck. And yes, I know you will say mine does.
@chuckp
Don't say that Chuck, I've got some Rotundos coming for Christmas and I can't afford to buy new stem and seatpost too! I've only just had to replace the original Felt seatpost with a very budgetatus plain alloy and am not planning to change it any time soon.
My bike is going to look a lot like yours soon, except mine has some strips of red on the matt black. And I'm going to go for the full white bar tape, and soon, if budget allows, a matching white saddle (Fizik, Selle, how do you choose a saddle) as my Felt saddle is starting to look a bit ratty.
@RobSandy
Also, is it just the camera angle or does your stem slope down? Any particular reason you've gone for that rather than just slamming the stem (I think I spy a spacer in there)?
Ah, all black tires for rain riding makes sense. I'm not alone in wanting to Protect the Tan.
Frank, are you posing for a photo in the designated bike lane? I can only image a cager seeing that and muttering, "There's that smug bastard Frank of the Velominati. Not only did he just meet Merckx, but now he thinks he can do whatever he wants out on public roads! That jerk doesn't even pay his road taxes!"
@RobSandy
It's a combination of camera angle and a -17 degree stem. When I built the bike (bare Felt FC frameset) and bought all the parts, I originally thought I'd be able to run a -17 degree stem slammed based on my old (early 90s) race bike set up (my Hollands). Instead, I ended up using the taller headset top cap plus a 10mm spacer. But that was also due to the fact that my 12cm 3T stem really wasn't 12cm. Turns out 3T measures their stem length based on the stem being flipped up in the + position, so a -17 degree 12cm stem actually measures more like 14cm. After riding around for quite a while and feeling like I was reaching just a bit too far, I figured it out and swapped the 12cm for a -17 degree 10cm that actually measures more like a 12cm (got that?) With the "shorter" stem, I could probably get rid of the spacer and still be comfortable but just haven't bothered because that would also mean having to cut the fork 10mm and I'm happy enough with it as it is. That plus I re-configured my Hollands so that the reach/drop to my brake hoods is identical to my Felt. I could achieve the same (current) position on the Felt without the spacer if I went to a -6 degree stem, but I'm partial to the look of -17 degrees.
@RobSandy
Side view of my Felt FC to give you a better look at the stem angle.
@RobSandy
Which year/model is your Felt? I got my FC frameset last year, so it's a 2015. I did the build in November 2015 (but my wife got me the frame mid-year as a birthday present). If I had known that Felt was going to replace the FC with the F1 frameset that uses the TeXtreme carbon fiber, I probably would held off and gotten that. At my level, I doubt that I would notice any difference (geometry is the same, just different material) but I absolutely love the TeXtreme checkerboard weave. http://www.feltbicycles.com/USA/2016/Bikes/road/race/frameset-f1.aspx
FWIW, I see used (some it barely used) 3T stuff for sale a fair bit. If your Rotundos are alloy, an alloy 3T ARX Pro stem can probably be found pretty cheap so you could probably get your bars and stem to match. Finding a 3T carbon seat post for cheap, however, is harder. I got a really good deal on my carbon Dorico Team seat post because it was an old model on closeout. Plus I'm sure the white wasn't as popular.
@chuckp
Mine's a very budget 2014 F75 - which I think is their workhorse alloy racer (cheap wheels, 105 throughout, but racy geometry). I think because of the matt colours it looks like carbon, and thus looks more expensive than it is (Teocalli thought it was carbon!).
However, I've upgraded the wheels and chainset (and soon the bars) and I think it's competitive, speed-wise, with bikes worth £thousands more. It's a bit heavy, like 9.5kg but then I'm not a featherweight either so I really don't think that is a hindrance.
I do think that F1 frameset looks sweet. One day, one day. Until I've ridden a nice carbon bike I don't know what I'm missing, so I'll have to keep it like that for the time being!
I'm having a week off this week. I'm desperate to ride my bike.
@RobSandy
Another pic ... mostly just to incite the fashion police. The kit is 90s era. Jersey is a club/team one of my friends created after breaking away from the club/team I founded after I quit the club/team (long story). Java Shack is our favorite local coffee shop (eventually became the title sponsor of the team I founded after my original sponsor pulled out) and where club rides started and ended. Still a local epicenter for rides and cyclists. The red shorts are from a local club/team in Lucca, Italy that we discovered when we were on vacation.