Half great, half horrible.
Cold on the way out -- I couldn't feel my fingers when we started, but I was feeling really good when I warmed up, enjoying the views of river mist shrouding autumnal color. I let up all the big climbs, still feeling like a BAMF on my Cervelo. One of the girls had a powertap, so she was telling me that we were knocking out 280+ watts on a couple climbs. We stopped a few times to enjoy the scenery and let everyone catch up, and had great pie at the Smiling Pelican in Maiden Rock.
On the way back, I sprinted right out and had a fun descent back to Bay city at about 43mph for a minute or two. Around 20 miles out from Prescott, everyone rode right past me. I was wondering "what's going on?" until I realized my rear tire was flat. I had to sprint for a mile to catch up with everyone--they couldn't hear me since I we had a headwind. I got it changed, and about 2 miles down the road, I flatted out the front tire and used my last tube to get that going. 3 more miles and I flatted the rear again. Frustration was at a peak (car & motorcycle traffic was ridiculous, loud, and not courteous, and really wore on all our nerves), and as I was about to borrow a tube, a member of our group who earlier threw in the towel and got a ride showed up in a car and offered me her rear bike wheel, which didn't fit my cervelo cutout, but then drove off to get a car that would fit me and my bike. After she left, I was able to play with the dropout setscrews enough to get it her wheel to work, and we took off yet again. I made it up a couple of the last big climbs and she showed up in the IMJenny's suv, and I decided to call it a day, since her tire was beginning to rub on my cutout, and my legs were toasted.
No comments:
Post a Comment