The Italian Stallion

There is new member of the race team in town!  In previous posts I had mentioned how I was beginning to look at tri bikes and comparing the costs and specs of the bikes that might work for me.  My dad was my go to man for bike advice and compared the bikes I was considering and always put in his 2 cents - I'm not going to lie he seemed quite excited about the addition of a Tri Bike.

I had been considering a tri bike for a few months.  I wanted to seem improvements in my swimming and running before making the big purchase.  With my PR 10k at Stumpy Creek and my PR Swim at Rockett's Landing I felt good about getting a tri bike.  My intentions all along with the tri bike were to win more races, qualify for bigger races, and all in all improve.  Coming off the win in Luray I knew it was time for the tri bike.  The Trek 1000 had been good to me - even got me many top 2 bike splits and top 3 finishes this year, but with The Nation's Triathlon around the corner I felt ready to commit to a tri bike - yes it is a commitment, especially when you make $0.

Do you ride a tri bike or road bike?  If you have both how much time do you spend on each?

I have seen and heard such statements that a tri bike will help decrease your run time due to the different geometry and position of your legs, it's more aero, it's lighter, faster, better, etc.  I never realized how different they were than when I started test riding them.  I felt fast and efficient, I loved it.  I had also heard buying a tri bike is worse than buying a car - I'm still not sure if this is true but all of a sudden I loved 2 bikes and I couldn't decide which one to get.

After going out to Bonzai Sports with my brother after the infamous DC earthquake I settled on a bike.  The staff at Bonzai was great, super helpful, 0 pressure, and flexible.  In a previous blogpost I had mentioned that I had my eyes on the Women's Quintano Roo CD0.1 - I tried it out and even the small was a bit big for me.  I tried a few other bikes and it came down to the Felt B16 and the Cervelo P2.  The Cervelo P2 and the QR were both highly recommended by my dad - the Cervelo taking the top spot and QR up there because of the women's specific design.

INTROCUDING...

THE ITALIAN STALLION

And for those of you who know me make sure to pronounce it "I"talian because we all know I do, whether it's right or wrong.

I absolutely love this bike.  The staff at Bonzai were awesome and spent a little over 2 hours working with me during the fitting and adding accessories and such.  This bike is fast and awesome.  I love riding the Hains Point loop for hours on this bike, it really doesn't ever feel hard.

Where do you like to get in a good hard ride at?

My biggest concern for my bike right now is getting it to Augusta for the Augusta 70.3 in just over a week.  Currently my plan is to send it down with a DC Tri Club member who is planning on driving while I fly, but if anything changes I will be having to ship my bike which I am not to fond of or pack it up and take it on the plane with me.

How do you travel to races with your bike when you don't drive?  Any advice on packing/shipping?


Do you have anymore races coming up this year?  What are you training for?