Life On Two Wheels

Along the river and toward the mountains a morning shadow shimmers across the road. The rays of the first light jet through the trees and across a figure gliding upon the road. His breath trails in short spurts, petrified as it hits the icy air. All is quiet except the slight sound of the athlete as he summons himself for yet another days work. Soon the rest of the world will bustle with life as well and the brief simplicity of cyclist and nature will disappear into the everyday struggle of life in full motion; the errands and intervals, the appointments and intersections, and the deadlines and finish lines OutPaceTheRace

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Blundering fool

Llieda, ESP- Volta Cyclista a Llieda
Saturday, June 10, 2006

Somehow I managed to totally screw up the last day- an easy 110 km race around Llieda. The whole race went fine until the last 5 km. Dan got in a good break early on; unfortunately, Dan and I’ve got something in common in that we take to crashing on a regular basis. He had to get stitches on his elbow though, so I’d say that his latest crash was a good degree and a half worse than, well, any of mine. Nonetheless a crash is a crash and they always suck. Anyway, his crash happened right before we got to the cat 3 so I was debating bridging up to his break, but of course I was thinking about what could happen way to much compared with what might happen. I hate myself. Then, back to my original banter, in the last 5 kilometers, it got windy, then echeloned and the field split right in front of me! Right in front of me! In the last 5 K’s! God I hate myself… The 30 or so guys in the front ended up getting some 45 seconds by the finish. You know that feeling where you want to ride down some 70 k/h descent and go right into & over the guard rail at the hair pin, then plunge some 300 meters to your fortunate death? That’s how I felt when I realized I was too far back and a gap was opening in the last 5 km of the last stage of a race! I feel like I work way too hard to have room for such stupid, pathetic, rookie mistakes! & Johnny even said to get to the front! It makes me want to beat a dog or something! What am I gonna do with myself? Route de Sud better go off without a hitch… or I will beat a dog… and a goat. I’m going to win one of these things, and soon!