My geared cross country bike is finally done!  A huge thank you to Sam and Steven for awesome hook ups and keeping an eye out for me with a couple really good scores on ebay.  It is a carbon frame, made by JBC out of Taiwan.  Parts Punch list: Chris King ISO hubs laced to DTswiss 2.1ds, Avid Juicy Ultimates, Reba World Cup (carbon crown and steertube), Extralite Scalehead2 Headset, Extralite seatpost clamp, Truvativ Noir Crankset, XTR Front Der., Nokon cables, Thomson X2 stem, Easton Monkeylite bars, Oury Grips, Easton EC90 Post, SLR XP Saddle, XO rear der. and shifters, Crankbrothers Sls, SRAM PG990 cassette.  Race tries will be Maxxis Maxxlite 310s as long as the course is packed and not sloppy.  It weighs in at 20 pounds!

So this is it then.  My slightly aggresive mountain biking seson starts in a week.  I am healthy and strong.  I feel good.  This is where and when I need to make it count.  Nervous and excited to be racing a "faster" class this year.  I will be able to hang.  I am even more excited to race with a few team mates.  None of which I have met yet, but reguardless it will be encouraging.

As of late I have been nervous at the lack of "training" riding i have been doing.  Chicago is not very condusive to putting miles in off road, and I do not have a road bike to put miles in on.  So I have been depending on the miles that I put on my heavy touring bike to act as weight training.  But ALAS!  Yesterday, being only the second day this new build has been up and running, I rode it 10 miles down south to watch teammates race the Monsters of the Midway race and to make sure it would not fall apart on me, adjust fit, etc.  There is a crushed limestone and dirt path, much like single track and fire roads, running along side the path all the way south from the loop.  Once I move in a month, I will be fairly close to this trail and the 7 miles or so each way that there is that I could have avalible to push myself on! YAY!

Have I mentioned I am excited to race yet?  Cause I am!