Category: Bicycle
The new (and only) Specialized Stumpjumper 29er built for racing.
My 29er race bike…
This puppy has been specially built for me by the engineers at Specialized. (thanks Jason!) To save weight, the BB has been replaced with a large diameter shell to fit the Specialized Carbon road cranks. (Which I’m running 2×9) And most of the paint has been left off. In my opinion, the silver looks a lot faster than the green and brown on the standard bike. (the stock bike weighs in at 28lbs) specialized.com.
This one weighs in just below 25lbs (11.3kg) (give or take- will update) vs my 26 inch Carbon Epic 23.7lb. (10.7kg) Nice.
Mount Rose highway: One of my favourite long rides…
This 4hr ride starts in Reno at 1300m altitude, climbs straight up to 2700m (takes me about 1h40 at 130 heart rate) and descends straight down to Incline Village, on the shores of Lake Tahoe. (1800m)
Fill up the bottles, (penalty points awarded for time spent off the bike) and start climbing back over. About 50minutes at 130HR. Then scream down the fun side and try to keep up with cars through the many curves on the way down.
I do this ride on my own. I get a lot of thinking and soul searching done. I think about racing, training and life. But mostly about racing. Then at times I’ll switch off and numb my brain with Battery 9’s “Oom Kosie” and others…
How to make a mountain bike mud guard in 3 minutes. #Cavemanstyle
Caveman’s hot tip for wet weather racing: How to keep sand & mud out of your eyes by making a low tech, high performance mud guard from a used soft drink bottle:
Soul riding
One of the many great things I got to do while in PE for Ironman was exploring the South Africa East coast by mountain bike. Actually it was training, (1h30 ride with 8x20second sprints) but I played with the location a bit and what came out was this amazing ride from Schoenmaakerskop to Sardinia Bay.
These kind of training sessions don’t come very often, but they provide me with the soul food I need for a long season’s racing, training, traveling and getting visas.
This is why I love my job…
Like my bike – Specialized Stumpjumper 29er?
My 2008 racing machine:
Specialized Stumpjumper 29er. Yes, it is BIG. Ryan Palmer built it at Specialized Team Camp last week, and when he finished building it, he said, “wow, its a monster”. The name might stick. The Monster.
I love the way this bike rolls over anything thats ugly, flat or downhill. Especially ugly. Uphill is still under investigation.
I truly believe this bike is fast and I’m excited about the new challenge of winning races on 29inch wheels will present.
Specialized’s engineer said if we can sell 500 he’ll make a carbon model…
