Solvang Camp, day deux

Today's ride has made me cranky, perhaps more cranky than usual. After an easy spin out of town, we pinned it up the first slopes and the group exploded. Jen, a regional pro here to do an article for Road Magazine, and Jim passed me just as the road turned to dirt. I was able to use my Oregon 'cross skillz to get back to them before ripping the descent and dropping them both. That didn't last long, though, as I could barely turn the pedals at that point. So, Jim and I did the rest of the climb talking about nerd stuff like power meters and Quarq while Jen floated about 100m in front of us. We could chat, but only because the climb was so steep that it was more like a weight workout than a bike ride. It didn't help that I was riding cranks 2.5mm shorter than usual. Hence, the Ow and the crankiness.

This was also my first day riding the new Quarq power meter and Garmin Edge 705. It seems that Garmin have a few quirks to work out in their firmware where power measurement is concerned, but that is normal and by the time it gets to market should be sorted out. The Quarq seemed to work perfectly, and the lack of wires is exciting. Finally, a nice, clean bike - the way it should be! One of the cool things about mating a power meter with a GPS device is the ability to track your power in relation to your route. How cool is that?

During lunch we got the inside scoop on iBike from founder John Hamann. Apparently, they are working on an ANT+ Sport compatible version which could pick up power data from a device like...the Quarq Cinqo! Why would you want one power meter to be able to get data from another? The iBike measures incline, acceleration and gradient (via inclinometer, not barometer) and back-calculates power output. It also tells you Crr (rolling resistance) and CdA (drag). So, if a rider can pair it with a power meter that measures hard data, that rider can have the sort of position and equipment data only an expensive wind tunnel session could otherwise provide. This is revolutionary.  I'm looking forwards to my Marin Camp to see what improvements are made in the next couple of weeks.

Hopefully Hunter will send me some photos of our day and when that happens I will post a few. Tomorrow is sprint day as well, and more hard testing.