Checked in with Andy from Hed Wheels – he’s in Belgium with Team HTC – Columbia and building up spare wheels in anticipation of the cobbles on Tuesday. He wrote:
I am in the upstairs appartment at service course. As a native Iowan, I am rather stunned at how much Belgium reminds me of my home state. I kid you not… The view out the front window is of a cornfield directly across the street. Yesterday we got in a short ride – I am borrowing Pinotti’s road bike from last season. Fastest and lightest bike I have ever been on – an I don’t even have aero wheels, just plain Ardennes. We rode out and within 5 minutes were on a country road, only about 1 1/2 bike lanes wide. Potato field on one side and corn on the other. I was following the ‘72 olympic tandem gold medalist (in the scratch race I think) – a Polish guy named Andje. The road was already small , and then he turned off onto a gravel path about 2 feet wide, and we cut over to to the canal for a flat and windy hour. Got back just in time to see the sprint for Stage 1. Service course is a racing nerd’s nirvana.
Lined up
I’ve ridden one of Columbia’s ProTour bike and it was right at 14 pounds. If Andy has time, he’ll check in with us again. He’s expecting a busy day tomorrow.
Whiteboard
While Andy’s at the Tour, we’ve got a new set of Stinger 4s he sent us on test; raced them yesterday, after Mark V glued ‘em up.
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