Sea to Stars - Mauna Kea

Got my air, got my hotel, now all I need is the legs for this race.

Since I never did this race before, I was lucky to get some good advice from my friend Rick Armstong who took 2nd in this race a couple of years ago. He is a super strong rider and he felt like his 39x29 @ 40ish rpm was just TOO HARD for the very steep, as in 17%!!!, last part of this race!!! Since I definetly have less power than him and, since I also weigh about 5 or 7 pounds more, I need to come up with some very special gearing for this race.

Basically, I'm ditching my right side (rear) 10 speed shifter for my old 9 speed shifter. Then I'm taking off my 12x27 cassette and putting on an old 9 speed XT 11x32 cassette which, by the way, weighs a ton! Then I'm taking off my 10 speed Dura Ace crankset and putting on that new (100 gram heavier) compact Shimano crankset that just got in my bike loot. This will give me a stump pulling low gear of 34x32!!!

If all this added weight doesn't hurt too badly, I think I will make good use of the gearing towards the end of the race...