Off to Africa...

No, I'm not going to visit my brother in Djibouti, but the stuff in the picture will soon be on it's way to Africa. I think to Cameroon.

One of the guys on the team (National Capital Velo Club/NCVC) sent out an email earlier this week that he was back for a week from his work in Africa and wanted to bring some bike parts back to help the less fortunate.

I recently made a half-hearted (more like a quarter-hearted) attempt to sell my white FSA handlebars. They're just too narrow even though they're 42cm. They actually measure 40cm (center to center) around the hoods and 42cm (c-c) at the end of the drops. It just seemed like there was no room for your hands.

So I sent an email to our team email listing posting them for sale...not a single hit.

A few days later I got the email about bike parts for Africa and thought it was the perfect match. I also threw in some cycling clothes that I hadn't worn for >2 years or so. Good feeling.

Today was the first time I've done the Saturday 7am "hammerfest." It's know as the toughest local ride. It wound up only being about 35 miles, but it was tough. My bud Brian from the team suggested it and said that it would be intense.

We started easily enough, just kind of strolling along and at about 15 minutes into the ride the pace skyrocketed and the drop occured. It was a really good workout and the goal is to hang a little longer each week. The group split and I was in the second half, but still getting a really good workout, which is the idea. My left cleat started coming loose and when I finally stopped to see what was going on I was down a screw. I tightened the remaining 3 and it was fine for the rest of the ride.

Being my first time on this ride I wasn't really sure of the route. There were a lot of turns and zig-zags, but it's a fun route that you can really only do as a group given that you're on major roads for some portions.

Some guy almost took me out because he swerved to avoid a rough patch in the road, that in my opinion wasn't worth swerving for. I hate that.

The Garmin ride info is here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/2287074