New Bike On The Way!!

After what seemed like an eternity getting myself sorted out, the new bike has finally been ordered. The S-Works Venge DA will certainly look grand in the stable and even better on the road where it counts. Full details on the bike can be found here (for now).

Hopefully all you will see of me on this beast will be a diminishing set of heels!
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An enormous thanks to Owain from Garland Cycleworks for looking after me as he did. Owain's knowledge and level of service is second to none and his understanding of my requirements made dealing with him the best experience I could have hoped for. I cannot recommend the guys from Garland's highly enough.

The decision to go with the Venge was made almost the minute I climbed into the saddle of the Specialized Venge Pro that was available for a test ride at the "Test the Best" tent back at the beginning of December.  Owain had me sized up and ready to go in minutes and as soon as I stepped on the pedals I was convinced that this was the bike for me and I could stop looking elsewhere.

Even though the test bike was not the S-Works DA model, to have the bike drafting the back wheel of Alan Flanders on a Shiv was totally unexpected and the ease in which it was achieved was nothing short of remarkable. Holding 65km/h along Mounts Bay Rd and loving it.

While Di2 would have been nice to have, not having it up front gives me a nice upgrade option later on. I won't miss what I haven't had so manual shifting will sit well with me for now and I will look into electronic shifting next year some time.

So what is to become of the faithful Giant TCR Advanced? I figure it will make the ultimate training bike. It represented my first foray into carbon-fibre cycling and will certainly have its place in the long-term training regime. I figure the additional weight of the bike and the entry-level equipment will require me to work harder in comparison to the Venge and will work well with hills sessions while the Venge will be perfect for sprint and power work and hopefully unbeatable for racing.

So the only wait I have now is for the bike to arrive at Garland Cycleworks, a chance for them to show it off a bit and then onto putting it to the test. I certainly look forward to getting into the saddle for a race to see how it performs and the current Summer Criterium series will be the perfect testing ground before heading into the next road race season and the UCI World Cycling Tour qualifier.