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A smiling, darn near swaggering Dave walked into my shop late yesterday afternoon. We chatted for an hour about life, the universe (at least the one encompassed within the Grand Loop) and everything, then at about 6pm he stood up, cleared his throat, and suggested it was time to "chamois up".
While he donned his SuperMan outfit I took a few minutes to inspect and (with his qualified* permission) weigh his bike. Nothing too exciting really--a well tuned bike with lots of water strapped to it.
*Dave: "Sure you can weigh it. Just don't tell me how much!"
Most unique and (to me) eye catching part was his ghetto/brilliant method for attaching two additional water bottle cages to his seatpost:
8 zip ties!
Minutes later we rolled down the street, up past the Tabeguache Trailhead, and westward towards Loma. With thick cloud cover and temps in the low 70's, it'd be hard to call the conditions anything shy of ideal. Curtains of virga circled the valley, with (mostly) light tailwinds as we spun and chatted the flat 20 miles towards the start.
At one point, on the largest, most massive climb of the prologue, I dropped him without hardly trying, proving forevermore (at least in my mind) that I'm way fitter, faster, stronger, and more handsome than him.
Errrr....
It might have had something to do with the fact that I was riding an unloaded bike on a 40 mile evening sashay, while his was fully loaded for another 350+ over ~3 days...
But I'm not so sure. Maybe he can chime in here later...
At Loma he stopped to fiddle with gear, stow and restash a few things, show off his homebrew light system, and generally grapple with the concept of what he was about to attempt.
Then at 8:25 he clipped into the pedals, flashed a confident grin, and fired up the turbo diesel.
Hope to hear from him this evening when he rolls into Bedrock.
I'll let ya know what he has to say.
Cheers,
MC
While he donned his SuperMan outfit I took a few minutes to inspect and (with his qualified* permission) weigh his bike. Nothing too exciting really--a well tuned bike with lots of water strapped to it.

*Dave: "Sure you can weigh it. Just don't tell me how much!"
Most unique and (to me) eye catching part was his ghetto/brilliant method for attaching two additional water bottle cages to his seatpost:

8 zip ties!
Minutes later we rolled down the street, up past the Tabeguache Trailhead, and westward towards Loma. With thick cloud cover and temps in the low 70's, it'd be hard to call the conditions anything shy of ideal. Curtains of virga circled the valley, with (mostly) light tailwinds as we spun and chatted the flat 20 miles towards the start.
At one point, on the largest, most massive climb of the prologue, I dropped him without hardly trying, proving forevermore (at least in my mind) that I'm way fitter, faster, stronger, and more handsome than him.
Errrr....
It might have had something to do with the fact that I was riding an unloaded bike on a 40 mile evening sashay, while his was fully loaded for another 350+ over ~3 days...
But I'm not so sure. Maybe he can chime in here later...
At Loma he stopped to fiddle with gear, stow and restash a few things, show off his homebrew light system, and generally grapple with the concept of what he was about to attempt.
Then at 8:25 he clipped into the pedals, flashed a confident grin, and fired up the turbo diesel.

Hope to hear from him this evening when he rolls into Bedrock.
I'll let ya know what he has to say.
Cheers,
MC