Mi estimado Wally.  Primero que nada quisiera agradecerte por el trato que recibí el pasado lunes en tu tienda, así como también agradecerte por tu asesoría para comprar mi primera bicicleta de ruta, FOCUS.  Ahora que estoy en casa, ya inicie con mis primeros recorridos de muchos, que tengo pensados hacer.  Por cierto me felicitaron por la compra de mi bicicleta FOCUS.

Hasta ahora que llegue a casa, me di cuenta que me falto comprarte la barra de Triatlon (aerobarra), pero sobre todo lo mas importante un jersey y short del equipo Wally’s.  La próxima ocasión que visite tus tierras pasare a saludarlos para complementar mi equipo.

Prometo hacer buen papel cuando porte el uniforme Wallys Bicycles.  Bueno mientras tanto seguiré entrenando y ya saben que tienen un amigo por estos lugares del mundo.  Animo Mucha Suerte y seguimos platicando.

Saludos,

Ruben Hernandez

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My dear Wally.  First of all, I would like to thank you for the the way you treated me last Monday in your store; I would also like to thank you for your guidance when buying my first FOCUS road bicycle.  Now that I am home, I have begun with the first rides, of many more to come.  Additionally, many congratulated me on buying my first FOCUS bicycle.

Now that I am home, I remembered that I forgot to buy aerobars, but more importantly, I forgot to buy a Wally’s Bicycles team kit. Next time I am in town, I will go by your store, so I can complement my cycling gear.

I promise to ride well when I wear the Wally’s team kit.  In the meantime, I will continue training, and know that you have a friend around these parts of the world.   Be well, good luck and we will continue to chat.

Greetings,

Ruben Hernandez

“Light!  Stopping!”  It’s 5:30 in the morning.  Our group of 12 riders is caught at a red light.  Ba-bump!  We can all see the deceptively long and steep overpass that awaits us.  Ba-bump!   We also know that this means a world of hurt is about be unleashed upon our lactic acid-ladden muscles.  Ba-bump!  I put my hands on the shifters as I am planning to conquer this beast with high cadence, at the cost of acceleration, and at the cost of being dropped from the group.  Ba-bump!  I witness the adjacent green light turn to amber.  Ba-bump!  Our light turns green and here comes the moment of truth, not just for me, but also for my Serotta bike.  Ba-bump goes my heart for the last microsecond as the chase beings!

Let us go back a couple of days so we can recount how we got here.  “Your first ride on a Serotta titanium bike will be magical!”  Those were the words uttered by Wally as I was putting my cycling shoes on, and climbed aboard the trainer at his shop.  I have grown weary since I know much in the cycling world tends to be over-hyped.  Nonetheless, I still listened attentively as Wally took various measurements.  A couple of minutes later, I got off the bike.  The tires were filled to the proper pressure and I went home.  My first ride would be tomorrow morning during Wally’s Saturday ride.  I was definitely looking forward to this ride, as the only other road bike I had ridden was my entry-level road bike.  I was looking forward to my “magical ride”.

The next morning, I got ready and drove to Wally’s.  A few minutes later, we were on the road.  First surprise of the morning: the ride seemed a lot less tiring.  During my usual rides, my perceived effort to hit an 18-20mph pace was considerable.  I was hitting that pace this morning with minimal effort.  I could easily increase the pace by a couple of miles-per-hour, and that would match the same effort I was exerting on my entry-level bike.  We made a turn south onto some rough chip-seal.  Second surprise of the morning: the ride was noticeably more comfortable.  I could barely feel the chip-seal.  It was a lot more noticeable when we would go over some uneven road.  It was here that I also noticed that the whole ride just felt “softer”.  I had to double check my front tire a couple of times just to make sure it had the proper air pressure.  We made a right turn and headed west.  The entire group was met by a rather nasty headwind.  A couple of the faster riders mounted an attack.  My first thought, “what better way to test this puppy than to hang with this group?”.  I was about to take off with them, but I decided against it because I would just be hanging with them and sucking their wheel.  A much better test would be to ride into the nasty headwind, all by myself and see how that felt.  I continued riding with the group that stayed behind, waited a couple of seconds for the faster group to clear out, and then took off by myself.  Third surprise of the morning: the acceleration is awesome.  I took off from the rest of the group and hit a brisk pace.  I was actually surprised that I could hit this pace, especially because of the headwind.  It was here that I remembered that I was not quite familiar with this route and decided to wait for the rest of the group.  I turned my head back and the distance between us was quite measurable.  The last surprise of the morning came after the ride was finished.  A fellow rider came up to me and jokingly said: “You know what the best part of riding a titanium frame is?  You don’t have to worry about the paint job”.  He is correct, you just don’t have to worry about the paint job, and even less about any rust getting on the frame.  Yes, titanium does rust, but as someone put it, “that frame will outlast you, your kids and your grand-kids”.  A fellow cyclist, Mike Wendland, once said that riding a bike is the closest a human comes to flying.  Taking the Serotta bike for its first spin definitely felt very close it.  Like Wally had said, it was indeed a “magical ride”.

But now, let us go back to where this story started.  The light in front of us turns green right before this deceptively long and steep overpass.  I settle on my saddle and with my hand on the shifters, I jump a couple gears.  I look at the rider next to me and give them a mischievous smirk.  I get off my saddle and press forward.  The other riders react to the attack.  They try to scramble to catch my wheel, but I am too fast.  I drop the group as I continue to ride uphill.  At the crest of the overpass, I slow down and let the momentum take me downhill.  I wait, and wait, and wait, and wait for the group to catch up to me.

The first time I took my first pedal stroke on my brand new Cervelo S1, I knew that we were going to have a good relationship together.

Having owned a Felt Z100 for the first ten months of my cycling career, I felt that it was time for an upgrade. Even though the Z100 still has tons to give, and had taken constant beating from all the miles I had put on it, I knew that I wanted to participate in competitive cycling. My bike and I, had a good run together, but it was time to move on up!

I started researching what kind of bikes I wanted, what was available in my price range: $2,000-$2,300-ish, and what would work best for the type of cycling that I wanted to participate in. At first I looked at getting a carbon fiber bike. Having thought that a carbon fiber bike was my only option, I started looking into which bikes I could get. After having a good discussion about what my options were at my price range with Wally, he suggested that I should probably look at getting a Cervelo S1. I researched heavily into this, as this was going to be my next bike for at least the next two years. I found out that it had professional cycling wins at several races, including: Paris-Nice, Criterium International, and Bastogne Liege. At first, I was a bit weary about buying an aluminum bike since a lot of people that are competitively racing have either titanium bikes, or carbon fiber bikes. After about a month and a half of researching, and reading constant reviews praising that this was a professional level bike, at an affordable cost, I finally decided that this was my choice!

I started the buying process, and within a month, had my brand new bike. I remember my first ride. I clipped on, and started to pedal. It was like nothing I had experience before. The bike was incredible! I went for a fast 10-mile ride the first day I brought it home, since I had gotten home late. The next morning, the sun couldn’t have come up any faster, I put on my Wally’s Bicycles kit, and took my bike out for my first real ride. Within the first five minutes, I knew I had made the right choice. The bike felt incredibly stiff, incredibly quick.  I was taking corners at high speeds with ease. I never felt like my bike was getting on the edge.   It felt as though my bike wanted to go faster. After doing my first sprint, standing out of the saddle, I sat back down. As soon as I did, I felt as if the bike saddened a little bit, as if it loved the pressure of the sprint, and didn’t want to stop. Once, I reached my first stubborn headwind, I kicked it up. I don’t know how to describe it, and do it justice at the same time, but there was a quote I read when I was doing research: “..as if free tailwind was thrown into your purchase.”. (Bicycling Magazine) Cycling into headwind had finally turned into less of a pain, and more of just another obstacle to climb, and my bike was the perfect tool to climb over it. Even though the S1 isn’t a carbon frame, it is quite possibly the closest that aluminum could ever get to the comfort of carbon, and it more than makes up for the extra weight with the aerodynamics of the bike, and the durability and toughness of aluminum.

Though I’ve only had my Cervelo for two months so far, I can already tell that it’s going to be a great next couple of years. Its combination of stiffness, aerodynamics, and durability come together to make it a great asset for racing, and for the next few years.