I really shouldn't push the old legs this hard 4 days in a row. But I sort of wanted to do back to back days on the two Giordana XL Supers as a comparison. So I went back out this morning to run the same route I've done the past three days. I could tell early on that the legs had no power. Still I was counting on this bike to carry me through. As built it's about 2 1/2 pounds lighter than the other one with some semi-aero, light, carbon tubulars running a larger 700 x 27 tire. It's also running a "better" mix of Super Record/Record components vs the Athena on the other one. So anyway, reality is this one just feels like a normal good bike. For whatever reason it never feels as wonderful as the one I rode yesterday. Same frames, pretty much the same fit, etc. On the ride today I had nothing for when the roads turned up hill a bit. I was able to spin ok on the flats though to get the speed going. I hit the 15 mile mark slower than all the past three rides which didn't surprise me. It was a bit windy and most of the mild uphill stuff is in this first section. I was at 19.07 miles at the one hour mark so I couldn't screw around on the way back. Just kept fighting the tired legs and actually somehow made up some time on the way back.

26.68 miles in 1:23:29 with 522 ft of climbing for an avg pace of 19.2 mph. So glad tomorrow really is a rest day. Oh and today was not a clean run either. Dropped a water bottle around mile 9 and then had some traffic issues holding me up a couple of times. Avg HR was only 147 today. The legs being too tired to power today really seemed to be what held me back from a faster pace.


So on paper this is by far the better bike. But on the road the other one just feels better and seems to always be faster.

This one is certainly in great shape like the other one and that Podium steel makes for some great bikes.