TNCWC #9 and a review

The TNCWC went off tonight. The weather threatened, but never arrived...it was actually pretty nice. The group was small tonight, but there was still enough HP to keep it interesting. We started with @ 20 and ended with @ 15. The pace ebbed and flowed and the pace was a tick slower than usual, but not by much.
It was almost like no one really wanted to race tonight...I know I was severely lacking in motivation. I think my admittedly poor diet over the last few days, in combination with the remnants of whatever funk the MTs gave me, led to heavy legs and a general feeling of malaise.
Ken took out the sprint for the W. The PV streak lives.

It's been a solid month since my ROL Race SL wheels were delivered and I've ridden and raced them exclusively. I ordered them in the beginning of March and waited patiently for 4 weeks. ROL was/is in the process of moving to Austin, and Sean Lambert (the man who own the joint) kept me abreast of the progress. He gave me a delivery date and the wheels arrived exactly on that date. He called me, not the other way around. That's good customer service. Call him and talk about wheels...seriously, he'll talk to you for as long as you feel like staying on the phone.
The Race SLs use ROL's own hubs, which are sourced from Taiwan, but appear to be faithful knock-offs of DT Swiss 240s. The spokes are DT Aerolites and the hoops are produced by Kinlin. Sean and his band of merry men (are there women working @ ROL?) handbuild each and every wheel to a high standard. They come out of the box dead true, round and tensioned evenly.
No ceramics in the hubs, and they aren't needed. The quality of the ROL hubs is higher than a lot of hubs that cost as much as the entire Race SL wheelset. They are dead smooth and roll almost as long as my White Industries H1 hubset, which ain't exactly cheap.
The wheels are stiff, but not to the point of being harsh. The high flange hubs, the 30mm deep hoops and the high tension of the DT Aerolite spokes all lend to this stiffness. I outfitted them with Vittoria Open Corsa CX rubber and Michelin Latex tubes...no point riding low quality tires on high quality wheels. The quality of the ride is very good as well, high dollar tires and tubes notwithstanding. No getting beat up on long rides with these wheels.
They roll like a freight train and corner smoothly and progressively. Once a line is picked, there's not a lot of drama, and that's a good thing when bombing corners @ 40kmh+.
I'm no lightweight, but even at 180 pounds, there's no flex when standing to climb or sprinting out of the saddle.
I've had more wheels than I care to remember. These are keepers. They do everything well and weigh a very reasonable 1545 grams (stated weight is 1550). The bang for the buck is damn good too. $589 for the set! That's no typo folks. You cannot source the parts and have a similar set of wheels built for anywhere close to the cost of the Race SLs. Go ahead, try it...I'll give you links to the pieces if you'd like!
Next on my list is a set of carbon tubies, and the first call I will make is to Sean @ ROL. You simply cannot go wrong with the product, the company or the man who builds and stands behind the wheels!