Karoo provides a great platform to place a racing tag
“The difference between a good cyclist and a great one is in their ability to adapt to the situation at hand”
I’ve spent the past few weeks in Canada with Team Skyline racing the UCI Canada block, competing in the GP Cycliste de Saguenay and the Tour de Beauce. I had a rather flat showing and was left wondering where I had gone wrong — was it in my perceived lack of fitness, or did the root of the problem go deeper? After careful thought on the 2 weeks of racing, the team director made a matter-of-fact statement: “Andrew, you need to adapt to the race, you can’t just try to bull through it.”
Photo from GP de Saguenay: Team Presentation, with (L-R) Justin McQuerry, Ryan DeWald, Davey Dawson, and myself
And that’s where the lightbulb flickered on. The difference between a good cyclist and a great one is in their ability to adapt to the situation at hand — otherwise, one is limited to those races that suit them, and of those races, the presence of 100+ other professionals on bikes certainly can change how a given race will unfold.
Bike racing isn’t just stomping as hard as one can on the pedals, praying that they cross the line first. It’s a careful and calculated endurance event where tactics, know-how, finesse, luck, and fearlessness all come into account and bring their individual flairs to how an event unfolds. Ultimately what makes people race best is being able to adapt to any situation and then ride accordingly. Wet, windy, hot, or cold shouldn’t affect how you ride; those who can truly adapt know how to bend their style around the immovable constant.
Pre-race shakedown cruise in Québec
In many respects this made me realize why I feel so passionate about Karoo. Karoo isn’t just the strongest (although we do like to boast about its ‘FTP’- 1.3 GHz processor, 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage) but its also the most adaptable. Like any other professional cycling team, the Hammerhead team predicates its software mission on versatility. This is why I, a shiny-legged road racer, find Karoo to be the best for my style of riding, whereas the local grinduro riders feel the same of Karoo for completely different reasons. Like hot or cold temperatures, flat or hilly terrain, and hot or cold climates, each cyclist’s personal style and ride-type is a constant, and needs a device that can conform to their style rather than trying to shoehorn something that will be inevitably disappointing. Like mud that neatly contours the bottom of a downtube, Karoo contours itself to its user, and we at Hammerhead love working with whatever you, the cyclist, dream up for us. Keep riding, and let us know how you ride on social media.