the worst and best 24 hours in cycling
july 19
la toussuire, france: the american in contention for the yellow jersey in le tour de france, floyd landis, bonked on the last climb of the day. he finished 8 minutes back for the day and moved into 11th place i believe. it almost sounds like my day.
fort collins, colorado: i heard that there was a group ride leaving from lee's cyclery, so i considered going. as time drew near, i didn't know if i wanted to go. there was wind and it looked like it was going to rain. i ended up going. i put on my shorts, jersey, gloves, cleats, helmet, sunglasses, gatorade and energy bars.
i got to lee's cyclery at 5:30. among me were guys with their shorts, jerseys, globes, cleats, helmets sunglasses, water, gatorade and shaved legs. i was out of place as they all knew each other. it was time to go and we were off.
there were two clearly defined groups - a racing group and a citizens group. i found myself in the racing group and was doing well for awhile. we came to a stop light and we all stopped. as the light turned green, all you could hear was the clicking of cleats. for some reason, as i had just clicked in, the person in front of me hit he brakes and i couldn't escape soon enough. i fell down and my chain came off. it didn't hurt, but i missed the light. the citizens group caught me.
i was in the lead of that group (mind you it wasn't really a race). we turned onto highway 287 and we were going south. as we had a tailwind, i decided i wanted to try to catch the racing group. i was going 35mph. i had almost reached them, but they had turned and i realized i didn't know where i was going. i slowed down considerably to wait for the second group so i knew where to go. this threw off my momentum and made me realize i had wasted energy unnecessarily. i was in a group of about 6 people. heading east into the headwind, i couldn't keep up with the top three riders of the citizens race.
we ended up missing our turn and going an extra 5 miles. we then turned north back to fort collins and were still going straight into the north east wind. the last 10 miles were grueling as we had missed our turn and were going into the wind. it was mentally draining. i got done with the ride in about 1:50. the 35 mile ride probably shouldn't have taken that long. oh well, i was done. i didn't care about anything else.
july 20
morzine, france: landis responded to critics by having the best single day in cycling history. he moved from being 8 minutes out of the lead to being 30 seconds off the lead, in one day. usually riders will watch their rivals and stay with them on the climbs. that wasn't going to happen with landis. no one could keep up with him. he outpaced everyone.
la toussuire, france: the american in contention for the yellow jersey in le tour de france, floyd landis, bonked on the last climb of the day. he finished 8 minutes back for the day and moved into 11th place i believe. it almost sounds like my day.
fort collins, colorado: i heard that there was a group ride leaving from lee's cyclery, so i considered going. as time drew near, i didn't know if i wanted to go. there was wind and it looked like it was going to rain. i ended up going. i put on my shorts, jersey, gloves, cleats, helmet, sunglasses, gatorade and energy bars.
i got to lee's cyclery at 5:30. among me were guys with their shorts, jerseys, globes, cleats, helmets sunglasses, water, gatorade and shaved legs. i was out of place as they all knew each other. it was time to go and we were off.
there were two clearly defined groups - a racing group and a citizens group. i found myself in the racing group and was doing well for awhile. we came to a stop light and we all stopped. as the light turned green, all you could hear was the clicking of cleats. for some reason, as i had just clicked in, the person in front of me hit he brakes and i couldn't escape soon enough. i fell down and my chain came off. it didn't hurt, but i missed the light. the citizens group caught me.
i was in the lead of that group (mind you it wasn't really a race). we turned onto highway 287 and we were going south. as we had a tailwind, i decided i wanted to try to catch the racing group. i was going 35mph. i had almost reached them, but they had turned and i realized i didn't know where i was going. i slowed down considerably to wait for the second group so i knew where to go. this threw off my momentum and made me realize i had wasted energy unnecessarily. i was in a group of about 6 people. heading east into the headwind, i couldn't keep up with the top three riders of the citizens race.
we ended up missing our turn and going an extra 5 miles. we then turned north back to fort collins and were still going straight into the north east wind. the last 10 miles were grueling as we had missed our turn and were going into the wind. it was mentally draining. i got done with the ride in about 1:50. the 35 mile ride probably shouldn't have taken that long. oh well, i was done. i didn't care about anything else.
july 20
morzine, france: landis responded to critics by having the best single day in cycling history. he moved from being 8 minutes out of the lead to being 30 seconds off the lead, in one day. usually riders will watch their rivals and stay with them on the climbs. that wasn't going to happen with landis. no one could keep up with him. he outpaced everyone.
1 comments:
i have the best explaination for not calling, but i don't want to make it sound like an excuse. soooo, i'll have to call you to tell you why i didn't call you.
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