Because I am a robot...

...I am also a mechanical genius.

Faced with the problem of a sprung spring on the rear V-brake on my mountain bike, I simply removed the spring, bent it outward to create more torque when it was tensioned and reinstalled it. VOI-FREAKING-LA! Fixed.

I did the same with the sprung caliper on my everyday fixed rig. Somebody buy that robot a pint of oil!!

Mechanical triumphs aside, I failed to convert the tuning up of my MTB into a spin on the trails. I walked the local woods with my wife and kids on Saturday, and then thought I'd get up at the cracko' on Sunday, but it was cold and still dark and stayed in bed instead.

I did a little brakeless riding later in the day, just cause I hadn't yet fixed the aforementioned caliper, but that was pretty mundane. It was more risky to sneak a brakeless bike out of the house under my wife's watchful eye, than it was to brook the city traffic without the benefit of stopping machines.

And, since I'm on a video binge lately, here's the last kilometer of Mark Cavendish's win at Milan-San Remo from Saturday:



Notice the way he jumps Hausler's wheel instead of Hushovd being there, and then how he chooses the last possible second to pull out of the slipstream and snatch the win.

This is big stuff because, no one thought Cavendish could ride well enough in the mountains to be able to contest the sprint in a race like this. That he is proving himself the fastest sprinter on the road with increasingly regularity, AND is now able to put himself into more race ending sprints, suggests that young Mister Cavendish is going to put up A FREAKING TON of wins this season.

I had previously thought he was a cocky little prick, but I've revised that view. He's a sprinter, remember, so cocky is part of the job. But he also wins enough to back up what he says and reps his team after every win. I'm not usually a fan of the sprinterly type. I prefer the climbers. But, I'm getting to like Mark Cavendish, if only because the French and Italians must hate him.