FINALLY! I was able to get out for a ride today ever since I caught a cold. Shortly after my previous ride, I caught a cold that wiped me out for about a week. In addition, I was able to determine the cause of the skipping of the gears. Turns out that it was a link in the chain that had gone bad. After this discovery, I decided to purchase replacement parts. I ended up purchasing a Dura-ace chain. I was able to get a pricematch with Nashbar on Performancebike. I got the parts today and installed the chain. It took me about 30 minutes after reviewing tutorials on Youtube. It was fairly straight forward. The key was to make the chain just long enough to where there's tension when the chain is on the small rear, small front gears. The UPS guy got here with the parts around 1pm or so. This gave me enough time to throw on the chain, get ready and head out. I decided to do the Willow Springs ride, as it was next in my agenda and the least difficult of the 3. Something else to note was that my hip was very sore after the previous ride (about a week ago). It has healed 100% since then. Ok, today's ride... The weather could not have been better, short sleeves and shorts. Temperature was in the upper 60's and partly cloudy. The winds were from the north east. My legs felt fresh for the entire ride. I did moderate tempo to the end of OTR, picked up the pace to good tempo over the top of Highline. Then I put it in cruise control all the way to Willow Springs. Doing no more than good tempo. The tailwind was strong, but not as severe as some previous rides. The return trip was more of the same. I kept the tempo in moderate, and increased my effort over the top. I was also working on balance which felt like it was coming along nicely. The bike is working well and no problems with slipping gears (so far). I'm feeling optimistic about my gear. I've added curls to my strength training days and hope to get my upper body in better shape than the previous years. I'm curious to see how it will help during hard efforts such as steep climbs, and mashing the pedals on the flats. Other notes, there were some gliders out today near the airport camp.