Cannondale SuperX for Gravel

I have about 400 miles on the new bike now, and I will admit a high end cyclocross bike is probably not the ideal gravel bike. I mean most bike companies are coming out with bikes designed for gravel roads and long distances. 

The Cannondale SuperX Himod had everything I wanted though, light weight, tire, 1x, disc brakes, and skewers. Everyone is going to thru axle now which makes my current wheels incompatible with those bikes. Someday I will have to switch to thru axle but not for awhile after this thing.

First off everyone says how stiff cross bikes are, that is simply not true with this bike. It is super smooth. The tiny seat stays flex over square edge bumps really nicely. When I first got the bike I thought my tire pressure was too low, but that was not the case.



Under hard acceleration the bike feels like it leaps with each pedal stroke. I don't know if this feeling is caused by the light weight or the efficient drive train or what, but it really feels like I get more horsepower to the ground than with other bikes.

Speaking of weight the 56cm version that I got came in at 16.9 lbs without pedals and with tubes. I have since put on tubeless gravel tires and a frame bag packed with stuff. I am still under 24 lbs with enough food and water for 100 miles, a jacket, tools, extra tube, pump, lights, and garmin.

I don't like that Cannondale put a short cage derailluer on the bike, this limits the size of cassette I can run. It comes equipped with a 11-28 cassette and a 40 tooth chainring, which is fine for just about everything but I am sure 200 miles into Trans Iowa I will be wishing for an easier gear. I am hoping I can sneak a 11-32 cassette in there without any issues.

Another issue is that tire clearance in the rear is limited. It looks like a 35mm is the largest I can get back there, but up front I have a 40mm and plenty of clearance.

This is a 33mm rear and you can see its tight, but a skinny 35mm should fit.

I have ridden this bike on everything from road to single track, and I am consistently impressed with how well it performs.

Loop Out of Orangeville

The Hills are taller than Silos

Fence Post Decorations

I was surprised to see an atv trail as part of the route.

Mountains in Illinois

Crush it

http://www.strava.com/routes/3255625

Almanzo 100 2015

                Friday night I left straight from work to meet up with Mike and Kurt, they were kind enough to let me borrow a spot on their hotel room floor for the night.  Once I arrived we just hung out, discussed plans, life, and watched some goofy movies Kurt had.

                We woke up Saturday, got some breakfast and watched the weather. It rained a bit before the start, which made for some gravel splatter everywhere.

                I got in a large group of strong riders and we were hitting it pretty hard. All different genres of bikers were represented in the group. The roadies were trying to get everyone to rotate and work together, but the group was too large to get everyone on the same page. The cross and mountain bike riders attacked the down hills, making the roadies shake their heads in discomfort. We made it to Preston in just over two hours. I hung onto the group till mile 60, when a few of the guys started to turn it up.

 

                I had zero interest in bonking that day so I backed off and held a steady pace for a while. I stopped at the 3^rd checkpoint for a banana and a beer, and then cruised on to mile 90. This is where I got bored of the steady pace and decided to push really hard for the finish.

                I passed a bunch of guys in that last ten miles, but I didn’t stick around to see the results.  I didn’t plan on staying the night again so I wanted to get on my way.

                I stopped at A+W for a burger and Root Beer float which tasted like heaven and vanished quickly, and I hit the road.

                Another great trip to Minnesota – David S

Update 5/19/15 - results are in, 55th of 543 finishers @ 6 hours 12 minutes.

Trans Iowa V11

My 330 mile setup

                On the drive out to Iowa we had some pretty bad rainstorms, and I was pretty concerned about my setup as far as clothing goes.  15 miles from Grinnell I decided to pull over and ride to town while Christina drove, this way I could check out my rain gear in the rain and see how the gravel was holding up.

Turns out the roads were bad, really bad in fact.  Bad enough that I really didn’t feel like riding them anymore, and decided to hop on the black top instead.  About 30 yards into the black top, while all the mud was flying off the tires, something went wrong with my drivetrain.  The chain got sucked into the spokes, causing a predictable trend of bad things.  Ruined drive side spokes, pretzeled chain and pieces of derailleur were all that was left.  So I called Christina told her to cancel the hotel and come get me, she said she would come get me and we can decide about the hotel later.  She knows I get really antsy in the time before races, especially this one, so she didn’t take my upset throw in the towel attitude too seriously.

My Pouty Face

                While waiting for my ride, I quickly realized how much I underestimated the cold.  38 degrees and rain is no joke. I wish I hadn’t broken all those parts, but I am still thankful I went for that little ride; it showed me I needed to pack some extra layers for the race.  I hid from the wind behind a hay bale. 

                We drove straight to the bike shop and hoped for the best, and thankfully Bikes to You was able to save my day.  The All City does not have a replaceable dropout so I was worried we wouldn’t be able to bend it back without breaking it, but everything worked out.  He straightened the hanger, put on a new chain and derailleur, and trued the wheel.  I will still need to get those spokes replaced, but at least I was back on the road. I would also like to mention that he set everything in the stand and I didn’t have to make a single adjustment since. Now that’s impressive.

Photo from http://bikestoyou.com/

          With that all figured out, it was time to head to the Meat Up and get signed in. We met up with Chris Schotz and Polly for dinner. It is nice to gather everyone up like that so we can all hang out in a somewhat relaxed setting, even though none of us are really relaxed.  Especially when we saw what was forecasted in the weather. After the pre-race meeting we headed back to the hotel to get everything settled for the next morning.

Usually I don’t have a problem sleeping before races, but hearing the rain coming down made for a pretty restless night.  I was so relieved to open the window in the morning and see the parking lot dry. Forecast said 35% chance of rain at 5am, so at least we would have a dry start.  The wind was coming from the East and since we had been given our cue sheets (directions) the night before, we knew the first 50 miles would be primarily head winds. 

                We left town with a lead off from Guitar Ted in his truck, once we hit the gravel it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. We formed a lead group that was about 15 guys, then that group started to get smaller as guys dropped off.  It started to rain a bit so on one of the short tail wind sections I cranked it up and got out front a ways, then pulled over to put on my jacket.  I got back in with group, roughly 5 guys at this point, and we headed into the wind and rain for a particularly hard long stretch. We could see lightning around us and at that point I basically shut the brain off and just went with it.  It was a pretty horrible experience but there was nothing to do about it other than just go.

We stayed as a group for the whole stretch, but once we turned right and had a cross wind, the group fell apart completely. That was about mile 25; from there it was some hills, rain, wind, and quickly deteriorating roads.



Photo by Jason Boucher

                I never bothered to find out what time the cutoffs were for each checkpoint, because honestly I never thought I would need to know. I never would have guessed that I wouldn’t make it to the first checkpoint in time.  I assumed that if I maintained better than a 10 mph average, I would be fine.  I was wrong; to get to checkpoint 1 on time I would need a 12 mph average. I am sure you are thinking “you couldn’t keep a 12 mph average? What kinda bike rider are you?” The truth is though that on the good roads I could do 12-14 mph into the wind, but on the bad roads I had to walk.  Spend an hour walking at 2 mph and all of the sudden you are not averaging a very good speed anymore.  Riding on the bad roads was even slower than walking, the mud packs on so thick that your tire just stops turning.

Photo by Jason Boucher

                I got to the checkpoint with better than a 10 mph average, but it was not enough. I was cut off, along with every other rider, except for one. The one rider that made it through checkpoint 1 continued on toward checkpoint 2, but pulled the plug later in the day when he realized he would not make it in time. No finishers and the shortest Trans Iowa to date.

                So at least I am in shape for the rest of the season!

Hollendale Hunnert / equinox ride / trains iowa training day 1

The last few weeks have been pretty busy for me, so busy that I got a total of 94 miles in on the bike over that time period. I was on track to have my best Trans Iowa training yet. With the winter being so mild, I was able to have above average January and February miles.  Then March hit and I went from big miles to no miles.

                Lucky for me, there is about 5 weeks left till go time. So Trans Iowa training day 1 was restarted Saturday, with a hundred miler through the “driftless.”

Driftless : free from glacial drift.  (aka: big hills)

Good Times Log Cabin in Hollendale, WI

                We left at sunrise, rode 50 miles out to Hollendale, WI(Population 230).  Then grandma cooked us lunch at an odd little bar in town, and we rode back to Madison with full bellies. 

The baby had a rough night.

Lunchtime decor



                It was a great day on the bike; I started to suffer around mile 75.  I hope my suffering was just some lingering sickness and not an indication of my current fitness.  Either way the group was riding strong Saturday.

                Good times, good suffering.