CHALLENGE: Not to jinx it but… <3

by Tiffany Pezzulo

The only thing I am more superstitious about discussing than lack of flat tires is how surprisingly calm the wind has been or how the rain/snow hasn’t started yet. My weather and barometric pressure superstitions are ok to discuss once the ride is over (I mean DEFINITELY not during the ride especially before the halfway point). But NOT getting flat tires? Who wants to tempt fate? So let's talk Challenge.

But here I will do exactly that, setting aside my superstitions to talk about how much I (along with the rest of the girls on the team) appreciate and enjoy our Challenge Tires.

 So now you are looking for the reason why...

... For those of you waiting for an in-depth discussion on rolling resistance, thread count (not just for sheets anymore!) and watt differentials as speed increases by 1 Km/hr at different pressures...Allow me to direct you to a million great articles on the internet. You will find no charts here. I actually tried to educate myself about some of these things in an effort to articulate WHY I love these tires. And it wasn’t a waste of time. At least I came up with some tech-y sounding terms to use in this blog post like VULCANIZED (which it turns out isn’t something that happened to characters on Star Trek). I would also like to provide a disclaimer about my failure to use the word “supple”. I. just. Can’t. It’s like that thing people have with the word “moist”. Not a total visceral reaction, but I would just prefer to not say that word or ever had it said to me.

But onto our Challenge Tires! They are Italian, and everyone knows Italians do it better (at least if you’ve seen Madonna’s “Papa don’t preach” video or taken my computrainer class at House of Watts).

 These tires are bravissimo. We ride the Forte clinchers for training and the Strada Tubulars for racing. At the risk of angering the racing/riding/tire gods...no flats in any races thus far! The tubulars corner like they are on rails (for you “Pretty Woman” fans out there) and the clinchers are super comfy without feeling slooooow.

And I can’t remember the last time I flatted on a Forte clincher and I live in Salt Lake City where we have great skiing and super fun winter  and mountain non-smooth riding for the adventurous in spirit.

Forte means strong in Italian. We like these words in both languages. On our team we also like snacks which translates roughly to “merenda or uno spuntino.”

 In sum, our Challenge tires get a collective 18 thumbs up. If you are looking for a secret race weapon or just to give your steed a little upgrade, consider acquiring some of these excellent tires! See you out there!