Thanks, Jo! I will post some close up nice pics tomorrow, but we were too busy rushing around and making up for ditching the kid all day to go ride....

We picked up the bike so late last night I did not ride it at all, not even around the block. So it was a huge leap of faith to take a brand new bike on a 70 mile ride with some extended climbs, but the bike was AMAZING. Snappy, light, responsive. It just wants to GO. I was a bit nervous about the compact gearing, but it really was great, and I have the nice IRD dinner plate cassette on back (well, ok, a dessert plate). I suspect with any gearing you'd want a little easier gear at the top wall of Diablo, but honestly the rest of the time was fine. And I didn't miss the in between gears you lose with the compact at all. So DH will not be trading me his triple for the new Record 11 stuff (that was our backup plan if I didn't like this). The new Record shifts so snappy and smooth.

Great job on the ride, BTW. And nice to see Thom and V.