those of you who have been following this year's vuelta, will be well aware of the apparent lack of logic displayed by spain's movistar, team. this may have something to do with the knowledge that nairo quintana has already announced his departure for, oddly enough, a pro-continental team for the 2020 season, coupled with the fact that, despite his advancing years, alejandro valverde seems to be blissfully unaware that he ought to be slowing down, rather than speeding up. rarely a stage has gone past without one or other of the two, riding quickly up the road clearly at the expense of the other. it appears that spain's principal team has yet to decide whether valverde or quintana is the designated leader.
however, on road stages at least, valverde is riding in the rainbow bands as world road race champion, which confounds the situation even further. if you've been an observer of professional road racing for long enough, you will almost surely have come across the legendary 'curse of the rainbow jersey', a mythical set of circumstances that avers the wearer of said jersey will suffer a thoroughly despondent season following their world championship victory. at the time of writing, valverde is sitting in second spot, 2:25 behind primoz roglic; hardly the standing of one experiencing a despondent season.
though i'd hesitate to state it's a matter of pride that i've never worn a competitive number on my back, not only will i never suffer from the curse of the rainbow jersey, there was never the faintest likelihood of my ever riding for the national team, even when i was young and fit enough to even attempt so to do. however, there's no denying that i suffer from a different curse, one that i sincerely hope afflicts others who have the great, good fortune to review cycle equipment.
the curse of which i speak is that allied to the reviewing of waterproofs. throughout the many years i have been fortunate to receive product for said purpose, almost wihtout fail, if i'm sent a waterproof jacket/jersey/socks/gloves etc., you can guarantee that the west coast of scotland will suffer from several weeks of sunshine and dessication. fortunately, this time round, though i'd to wait a tad longer than hoped for, my frayed patience was finally rewarded by more precipitation than i could have ever expected. in this case, the product impatiently awaiting a thorough soaking was the recently reviewed revolube chain lubricant.
in the weeks since the lube was carefully applied to each and every link of a campagnolo twelve-speed chain, i have done nothing other to that very chain. i've not cleaned it, polished it or re-applied any revolube, but a matter of days ago, i contrived to deliver more than a thorough soaking, not only via constant precipitation, but from having cycled through several sections of flooded road and had it evenly sprayed with surface water. according to the folks at revolube, appropriate application of the product will not only maintain a healthy chain, but obviate any rust spots while it sits patiently in the bike shed for a day or two.
i can positively attest to the latter.
given my usual obsession with keeping my chain clean, i have suffered from occasional bouts of a desire to polish, though i have so far managed to refrain from doing so, in the interests of fulfilling the principles of a pragmatic test. i cannot deny, however, that i'm mightily impressed by revolube's propensity not to blacken the chain, something that so many other wet and dry lubes have a tendency to do. the original application to a brand new chain, was made over a month ago, yet the chain still looks decidedly new, (as does the cassette, by the way) and remains as silent as the day is long.
as mentioned in my original review, a 50ml bottle of revolube isn't cheap, at £47, but if it survives for over a month without re-application and promises to last a few more weeks and soakings in the interim, then it might well be worth the outlay. i confidently expect the weather to deteriorate between now and any future update i may write in the coming months, so we'll see how well it continues to perform.
sunday 8 september 2019
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