Nationals...Panic, but Mostly Frustration

Day 2 of rest has not disappointed me. I knew it would be a tough day and it has been just that. The day day started well enough with a 1.5 hour ride. I have yet to find a road around here that is somewhat flattish. I long for some good high speed tempo riding. I cleaned up and had a phone meeting with Jay which seemed to help keep my nerves at ease. I approached the afternoon very casually and eventually decided to get ready for tomorrow. I had to switch out cassettes and clean the bike. I put the race wheels on and took the bike for a little spin around the parking lot. It was shifting horribly, if it would shift at all. Hmmmm. The wheel is in straight. I double check my work and the cassette is fine. I put the bike in the stand and I noticed that the wheel is not centered. I can't get it to center. I call Bob. I was hoping there was something simple I was missing or forgetting about. I put the other wheel back in and noticed that that one was also off center, but a little less so than the other one. Now I'm thinking that maybe the derailleur hanger is bent. I'm awful at seeing things like that unless it's pretty bad. So, I took it to the local bike shop only to find out that I was a better, more knowledgeable mechanic than the guy who was there. Damn. He looked at it and didn't even notice that the wheel was off center until I had him look at it from a different perspective. His "oh damn" response was not what I wanted to hear, but what was worse was that he had no solution to offer. I ended up trying to adjust the rear derailleur cable tension which was very loosy goosy and that seemed to help. It almost shifts fine. I finally gave up worrying about it and will ask the Shimano folks for some help in the morning.

I ended up putting my 404 on the rear instead of the 303 because the brake pads kept sticking to the 303. Sticking badly enough that I could not get the pedals to turn at all in the stand. I'm not sure what is up with that. There isn't any errant glue on the braking surface and I'm using the recommended Zipp brake pads. Screw it. I can't worry about that too. 404 rear and 303 front it is for tomorrow.

So, other than that, there is nothing to report. A pretty boring day, but I'm getting excited about leaving tomorrow. I'm excited to race, for sure, but I'm also really ready to be somewhere else. Until tomorrow...