FLASH-POINT BLOGGER: MATT PURDUE

Wow, long time, no blog. Things have been crazy with work, interviewing for a new job, etc. Riding is definitely lower on the priority list, and even nature conspires against me. Too many thunderstorms the past few weeks here. Maybe it is global warming. Who knows?

I suppose it is officially the dog days of summer, and it sure feels like it. But now's not the time to slack, with some big rides coming up.

The first is a scouting ride for my annual charity event, the York Tour de Pink. In late September, I'll lead a group of 100 riders from Pennsylvania to NYC to raise funds for the Young Survival Coalition . This weekend, I'm riding 105 miles of the route.

Then next weekend, I'm riding the Pan-Mass Challenge, which benefits the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston--5,000 riders raising ~$30 million. I'm riding nearly 200 miles over two days with my friend Paul's team. Go Paul!

Sometime in the next week, the good folks at Serotta are lending me one of their new Serotta HSG Carbon bikes for the charity rides. I'm motivated to do justice to Uncle Ben Serotta's creation. Wish me luck.

I recently underwent a 3-hour bike fit session with Paul Levine at Signature Cycles in Manhattan. Paul is a Zipp dealer (among many other high-end products).

I created a long thread about the fit session over at RoadBikeReview.com. You can check it out here.

I call myself a bicycle racer. I ride for a team called Setanta in New York, a member of the Century Road Club Association, the oldest bicycle racing club in America. Occasionally, I compete in duathlons for "fun."

For me, the primary difference between mass-start bicycle races and duathlons has nothing to do with the actual events. It's the Monday-morning analysis. In a bike race, you can either hang with the leaders or you are pack fodder. Or, worse, spit out the back of the group. You don't need a $3,000 power meter to measure whether or not you are having a good day or a crappy day. But duathlons, at least the ones run by the excellent New York Triathlon, are electronically timed, leading to all sorts of problems.

In 2006, I competed in the Brooklyn Biathlon in Prospect Park. For someone who hates to run and refuses to train on my feet, I did OK. The event is run 2, bike 10, run 2, and I finished 25th overall and fourth out of 19 in my age group on standard, box-section aluminum wheels. A few weeks ago, I was excited to try the new Flash-Point FP60s at the 2007 event.

The fun began on the ride to the park, an 8-mile jaunt from Manhattan to Brooklyn over some sketchy roads. Again, I did not miss the carbon tubulars that my Flash-Point wheels replaced; no way would I ride tubies to a race, because if I flatted, I'm going home. So riding through Park Slope, I hit a pothole. BAM! I stop, get off the bike, spin the wheel… it is as true as ever.

Finally, I get to the race. Simply because I know the course better, my run improves. I know where I can take it easy and where to push the envelope. On the first 2-mile run, my time improves by 2:45. On the second 2-mile run, my time improves by 52 seconds. And I'm using the same Saucony kicks I used in 2006.

And on the 10-mile bike with the flashy new Flash-Points, my time improves by...exactly 7 seconds. What's worse, there are 11 more guys in my age group this year, so I finish 8th in my age group (31st overall).