The Vendetta can CLIMB!!!!

[psychling]

What with all the changes in my life (closing my practice, retiring, selling our house, packing up and moving, settling in, etc) I didn't really get a chance to start riding the Vendetta until September 16th, just 5 weeks ago.

Living in mountainous terrain, now, we can't go 10 feet from our house without going uphill or downhill. And thanks to the fact that I've been riding the Silvio in this terrain for the previous 5 or 6 weeks I did have some `mountain' legs already developed.

I'm providing four links to some significant mountain grade climbing that I've done on the Vendetta since September 16th. Suffice it to say that the Vendetta is a speed and climbing powerhouse:

• 
  54 miles, 5,319 feet of climbing: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/115505299
• 
  35 miles, 4,664 feet of climbing: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/115868830
• 
  48 miles, 4,205 feet of climbing. Note that there is one 3 mile section of road where the grade is more than 6% with no break ... and THEN it get's steep: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/121868663
• 
  68 miles, 6,402 feet of climbing: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/123317836

Over the next few months I'll be taking the Vendetta `down' to the desert for some flatland Time Trial runs on a 56 mile section of the RAAM / RAW route (Aguila to Salome, AZ and back). I've already done a short 20 mile spin on this course in 111 degree temps and was `slipping' through the air at 23 - 25 mph without even breathing hard.

More to come.