Testing out the new wheels

I received a surprise present from Andy the other day - some lovely shiny new wheels for my road bike! The ones on my Specialised Dolce are the basic entry level ones that came with the bike and have been appalling for going out of true. These new Shimano RS30 wheels not only look the business but they should also be able to handle the vast variety of road surfaces that we have down here rather better than the old ones.To test them out, we headed out yesterday with the intention of doing the Trois Vallées/three valleys ride from Seix. The first leg is up to Aulus and back, the second was up the Ustou Valley and back and the third up the valley to Salau - approx 90kms in all. The ride up to Aulus was lovely and my new wheels even sounded like 'proper' road bike wheels with their smooth tic tic whirr hum. We arrived in Aulus to be greeted by the first rumbles of thunder that signal the arrival of the afternoon storms. The ride back down the valley was a race to beat the rain that would surely not be long in coming. It was a wonderfully fast, fun (up to 53kms/hr) ride back down the valley with both of us taking turns in the lead. Unfortunately, we had to abandon any idea of doing the other 2 valleys as the storm clouds were rapidly gathering strength. We'd only covered just under 40kms/340m of ascent in 1 hr 20 min. Still, a good turn of the legs and I am well impressed with my fancy new wheels! Full stats on the usual site.