2008 Blogs
Hey Red Rider, just keep eating, just keep climbing, just keep eating. Suffering...?
117 km today with three cat 1 climbs. Needless to say, things broke up quickly. I found myself with a concrete group of 6. Alexis Rhodes and I took turns at the front on the descent and we quickly picked up more and more who didn't get blown out the back on the climb as quickly as we did. Eventually we found ourselves with a ginormo group and about 50 of us rode it in to the finish, 23 min behind. We got some rain today, so that was nice. We've had perfect weather for the passed however many days.
I find myself testing myself with worthless questions, just to see how far away from brain consciousness I have fallen. Such as previous stage details. I find this impossible. There are two pieces of it - the shizah of the first 3-4 days, and the rest of it. I suppose this is good, because everything is going better and I feel stronger each day. Yesterday I think was physically the hardest. I was gone passed gone.
Some realizations:
It is waaay more fun to finish in a group than by yourself, even if you're waaay off the leaders.
Sometimes you hit a point of sheer survival mode.
Diesel cleans bikes real well and you don't need chain lube.
A menthol patch on the lower back can save the day.
Sometimes gels just don't get the job done and a buttery ham croissant becomes the bomb diggedy race fuel.
You lose a sense of any privacy at all and lose all stage fright, and find yourself squatting in the middle of a parking lot filled with euro fans begging for your trading card while at mid-pee.
A sense of home has a new meaning. After 4 days in Limoux, 2 of which were without any of my stuff, it became my home away from home away from home. Bike racers have a knack for making themselves comfortable.
Here's the life of a follow car:
We're down to four riders now. Rebecca dropped yesterday after two days of leg and back numbing pain. She's got a looong season ahead, so it's all good. She's a time trial machine. Look out. Alex dropped today - she's got some big fish to fry coming up...including the Olympics. So we've dropped back to 9th in team GC unfortunately. I gotta pull my weight.