What really matters in racing

I am a certified junkie for cool stuff!! I'd have $5500 Carbon spoked, Boron 800 gram LEW VT-1 wheels (if I won the lottery). I'd also have $3400 SRM cranks on all my bikes and ceramic bearings everywhere I could find to put them. Lets add a little bit of Ti, a splash of Carbon fiber, Kevlar?? Sure. Zipp 303 tubulars for training wheels, sure-toss them in there!! I am exaggerating btw-but I do like cool stuff and my bike is not heavy!!

But lets get serious, what really matters? A guy whos made a big difference in my general health named Todd Palmer (a Masotherapist) really made it stick in my head when he said (not in these exact words) that cyclists will spend hundreds of dollars to save a few grams on there bikes, but what drives the bike they wont spend any money on. You know that ugly bag of mostly water (star trek quote i think), the human body. And will those $150 and 50 grams add up to a win?? I doubt it!! Sure, you can nit pick and say of course hed say that, he wants to get all Masotherapy on your body and get Paid!! Will regular stretching, off the bike exercise, proffesional bike fit, proper coaching, nutrition, masotherapy and hydration and recovery get you to the podium?? I bet it will!!

I'd say that my goal to lose weight this winter got to be a bit obsessive, but last week and not to contradict myself, I was weighing my bike before Wilkesville to see what the weight differance was between my training wheel and tire and my lighter (non Power-tap) wheel. While I was standing on the ole bathroom scale holding my bike it occured to me that me and my bike now weighed LESS than I alone weighed last year.

So am I feeling well? Has my quality of life gotten better? After my body (well its still trying ) has started to adapt to riding a bicycle again Id have to say yes, yes YES!! Has all of this coaching and crunches and planks and no Mcd's or soda (had my first soda in like 6 months last week at Lake farm Park), stretching made a difference on the bike? Again I say yes.

So, now how many grams will I save if I switch to my carbon seat post........................