Parlee - an incredible 11th hour opportunity!

Written by Bridie O'Donnell

Saturday, 27 February 2010 06:18

Timing is everything, and it can certainly lead to sleepless nights of worry and a big sigh of relief, all in the one rushed month before departing for Italy!

My first ever professional cycling contract with Team Valdarno is going to be a steep learning curve! The team is stacked with champions, including 2009 road World Champion, Tatiana Guderzo, and the team road bike is Corratec, built up with SRAM Red (yay!)

Of course, a great TT bikehas been a priority for me and something I have specified as a personal equipment choice in my contract. After a satisfying and successful 2009 season riding the Cervélo P3, a series of circumstances (involving international time zones, customs and minor insomnia ) played out, and I was presented with a pretty incredible opportunity.

I'll be riding a Parlee TT bike, painted up in my team colours, shipped over from the US and built up by Tim (and supervised by moi!) at Cycling Edge in Melbourne. I am very excited (and relieved!) to be on such a light, aero and beautiful looking frame. Did I mention it was light....

Custom blue and white Parlee

So my sweet new front end, my SRAM powerglide TT chainrings with SRM and a lovely Red gruppo will be assembled on the azurro blue frame this coming week and I can take it for a spin before departing Melbourne on the 9th March.

A big thanks to Tom and Parlee, Peter at Cycling Edge and Rob Eva at SRAM Australia for all his hard work and half wheeling me through the Dandenongs when I'm on the verge of the Black Lung!

Updates on how it handles on the Geelong course will be kept terribly secret, of course! ;)