So after riding most of my commute yesterday in the lower end of the Novara’s gear range, thanks to a broken shifter, I managed to futz with it enough to move it into some sort of friction shifting mode.* This was a good and bad thing. Good because, hey, it actually kinda worked, and bad because I was then be fooled into thinking I could ride the bike until my new-to-me shifter arrived later in the week. Given the rain in the forecast for today, I didn’t hesitate to ride the Novara again today, and it mostly stayed in a middling gear, and I even managed an up-shift at one point. I am slow as can be, thanks to the static gear, the studded tires (for extra resistance, the front rubs the fender), and the condition of rear hub, which seems to be gummed up with road sludge, but I don’t really mind.

To continue the discussion of goals from the last post…it struck me that it was far easier to define goals when I climbed more seriously (that is, I trained). My journal was filled with “onsight 5.x” and “boulder VBlah.” What’s more, achieving those goals fell squarely on the shoulders of my climbing ability, unlike cycling, where there are loads of other factors that could affect an outcome (flats, high winds, people who sit up on the finishing straight and move in front of you, clearly stealing your chance at actually winning a stupid race at the stupid Oval). So, that makes it harder for me, at least, to pin down goals for 2009.

I suppose the big question is whether or not I’ll race Bs at the Oval. If I race Cs, MARs would be high on goal list, with perhaps a few wins (and certainly a high placing in the team classification). But if I race Bs, well, survival would be a good start. Supporting a teammate would also be up on the list. What about on the road? Hmm. I’d love to think I could try to move up to category 3, but that might place the bar a bit too high this year. Lots of pack finishes is a good start, given my track record last season. However all this shakes out, however, my primary goal is to have fun, and keep the whole bike racing thing in perspective.

* This isn’t a “feature” of the shifter, mind you. I think I just broke the pawls inside completely.

Posted on 11 February 2009