Giant Anthem 0

I picked up my new mountain bike from The Wheel Cyclery yesterday after work. Heather spent some time with me setting the bike up for my weight and geometry. I left work early to pick the bike up and went straight to the Smithville Lake trails, I am racing the Ouachita Challenge 60 mile race this weekend and figured I better put it through the motions because the weather called for rain in KC the next few days and I might not get another chance to ride before my race. My first impressions were that the bike is fast, I never realized how much the shot suspension in my old bike was draining pedal power, when I turn the pedals around on the Anthem, I felt like almost all of the energy pushed the bike foward, especially in the climbs. My old GT would bob pretty bad as I pedaled, sapping up alot of energy. The first lap I had a hard time controlling the bike in the rocky sections, until I figured out the front Fork was locked out and the tires had 50+ psi in them from the shop. My usual hard training laps at Smithville are around the 56 minute mark, I rode my first lap in 53 mins and this is including an additional 1/2 mi of trail they just added. I was very surprised at my time, I didn't really feel like I was pushing that hard. I need to make a couple of changes tonight, the riser bars and the steep stem angle made me feel like I was sitting upright, my bars are actually higher than my seat, I am used to a much more aggressive position. The bike also didn't come with tubeless tires, go figure you buy a higher end bike with Crossmax SLs and you gotta immediately switch out the tires. The seat aslo beat my rear end to death, I will have to put my old seat on the new bike. I ended up riding just over 3 hours and by the end I had to pull off from Chris Locke and Dan Gierer due to my rear hurting, plus it was getting near 8PM and I was hungry. Anyone looking for a brand new Race Face Carbon riser bar or a new WTB saddle let me know.......