Entrainement pour la semaine

En attendant dimanche prochain, voilà de quoi vous faire patienter et vous maintenir en forme !

Le score a battre est de 780 .... a vos souris .....

Wilier Cento1 - aka One O Ooonnnneeeessssss

A couple of weeks ago Harry and I went down to Italy for some shopping.

We left Senlis at 6:00am and ou friend Francesco Scardaoni (Oooones) of team Felt picked us up at the Bologna airport and drove us to Terni.

When we arrived at Ruota Libera (store photo) my favourite bike store, I simply stated a budget and the requirement that the bike be Italian.

Francesco, Roberto and "the Wizard" consulted among each other briefly and quickly came to a concensus:

A 2009 Wilier Cento1 with Campagnolo Chorus 11S, Ritchey WCS 

componentry and Ursus Gallardo wheels was what I needed.  Fitting all this in my budget was possible thanks to Roberto's always friendly pricing and Euro700 from the Italian government as part of an incentive to promote biking as an alternative to cars.

Roberto asked to be left alone to "create" the new beast.  He gave us a set 

of road bikes and told us to go and get lost ... which we did.  Francesco lead Harry and I on beautiful 75km bike ride in the middle of the Appenine mountains.  Despite my dismal performance I really enjoyed the ride!

The Wilier Cento1 is the evolution of the Wilier Cento which is Wilier's flagship bike.

The first thing to say about it is that it looks great.  The marriage of geometry and livery strikes a perfect balance.  The bike demands attention without being too flashy.  How about them white wheels!

The second thing to say about this bike is that it rides like the wind!  The Cento1 has incredible 

stiffness when pedaling and yet each imperfection on the road is absorbed sooooo smoothly you can barely feel it.

How did Wilier achieve such a balance?

Material and Geometry.

Material: the Cento1 is made of 46Ton Carbon Fiber.  This 

means that the fiber has a strength of 

46Tons/mm2!!  That means that you could stack about 50 Peugeot 206 on top a piece of carbon fiber the size of the lead of pencil!

The only other bike to match this spec is the Pinnarello FP7.  The Pinnarello Prince FP outspecs all bikes with a 50Ton/mm2 fiber.

As far as geometry

goes the stiffness comes from two main areas: the bottom bracket and the headset.  As you can see from the pics the bottom bracket is absolutely massive and the bearings are integrated in the frame for a reduction in weight and a gain in stiffness.

Looking from the top you can really see how the

 frame really bulges out to make a housing for the pressed in cups.

The other source of stiffness is the headset area.  Here you can really notice the massive structure that supports the fork.  

Curiously enough the section is square at the bottom and round at the top.

Form and function chase each other all over the frame resulting in 

creative shapes such as the intersection of the tubes below the seat and the assymetric rear bottom tubes.  Notice how the drop out is carbon as well (scary!)

Rule #3 of the Universal Biking Manual:

YOUR BIKE CANNOT HAVE ENOUGH ITALIAN FLAGS ON IT.

Speaking of Italian, the bike is equipped with Campagnolo Chours 11s.  The 50/34 combination will be great this August in the Rocky Mountains, but for l'Oise the 34 is too small and so it will soon be replaced by a 38.

On the other hand, nothing but praises for the 11s cassette and deraileur.  The extra speed delivers fast, smooth changes and you can always find exactly the ratio you are looking for.  Also gotta love the "clang" on the upshift!

In conclusion the only thing that I can say is that I simply can't get enough of this view!!

Anyone up for a ride?

Saluti,

Fred

Sortie du 23 mai

C'est l'inverse du VTT, plus dur d'en descendre que de monter sur la bosse.
En revanche, c'est parfait pour les pistes sablonneuses. On l'essaye demain matin 9h00? N'oubliez pas vos Camel Bags ....

SORTIE VTT MONT PAGNOTTE

Départ vers le mont Pagnotte ce matin en compagnie de Bruno et Patrick. A notre grande surprise le terrain était de plus en plus gras en approchant du massif d'Halatte, apparemment l'orage de la veille avait fait des dégats.Quelques chutes, dues à la faible adhérence de nos pneus, une discussion bien sympathique avec des collégues du raid picard rencontrés sur le belvédére du pagnotte, plus tard nous reprenons la route en direction de Pont St Maxence, l'Oise et Verneuil, 52kms au compteur et 3h30 de VTT.
A Dimanche 9h00
@+ fabrice

... those left behind ...

Fred, Harry and Dave were not able to join the Raid Picard so a road bike outing was our only possible consolation.

Harry could not participate due to severe dehydration from an alcoholic experience on Saturday night ( ... a recurrent theme for the night apparently ...)

Dave and Fred set out at 13:30 from the usual spot and headed East towards Crepy en Valois. The tail winds made this first part very enjable as the average speed was 36kph for the first 16kms of the ride.

After this speed fest we turned North at Duvy and followed a valley all the way to Bethisy-Saint-Pierre only to come out at Nery, Rary, Ognon, Chamant a

nd finally back in Senlis.

54.8 kms in 1:49:44 makes a nice round average of 30kph, which is really not bad given the fact that we were not pushing and there was a LOT of wind!

Fabrice, gonna join in the fun next time??

Fred

RAID PICARD 2009

RAID PICARD 2009

Nous étions 4 cette année, en raison des vacances, à participer à la 2éme édition du RAID PICARD, le parcours était différent de l'année derniére, beaucoup plus roulant avec une 2éme partie plutot "hard".
Le classement d'arrivée est le suivant Romain qui du haut de ses 16ans nous a enrhumé, ensuite Ernesto (on se demande à quoi il tourne!), Fabrice à 2min d'Ernesto mais véxé quand méme, Patrick qui a fait l'assistance de Jacky et Jacky qui a fait autant de mécanique que de vélo, ils vont l'entendre chez Décathlon.
Aprés cette épreuve il ne nous restait plus qu'à nous restaurer et à reprendre la route direction ST PIERRE AIGLE et hop 20kms par la RN2.
Au total 57 kms au compteur, environ 3hOO de VTT et totalement ravis, nous serons au rendez vous l'année prochaine avec le reste du VC SENLIS, prenez date le 02/05/10.
@+fabrice