RIDE 1-
So the plan was to to ride from Bloomington, IN to Scottsburg, IN, to arrive just in time for Princess Shae's high school graduation. The forces of nature were hearing none of it though.
We (me and Prince Josh, Li'l Lotto's oldest nephew) left Bloomington in overcast skies and a weather report calling for 30% chance of showers. We headed south on Route 446, past (or more like through) Lake Monroe. An ominous looking cloud was off to the west as we headed south. I was saying to myself at this point, "Precious, [because that is what I call myself] maybe that'll miss us." It didn't. More like hit us square on. The Prince was nonplussed. Me? Well, seeing as how my knee wasn't killing me, for the first time in about 2.5 months, I was having a right good time. It didn't hurt that he was riding with me at my pleasure (as Tango often notes about me riding with him). Ya see, I started droppin' him on every little rise in the road. He hasn't been riding much, so I shouldn't be all too excited about it, but I gotta admit, it felt pretty good. Hittin' him at will, as Mohammad Ali would say. Then we ran outta road. Or at least out of usable pavement. Our choices when Route 135 hit Route 50 were a very busy road (Route 50) with lots of semi's, during in a pretty nasty downpour, and a dirt road. We chose the dirt. Bad choice. It was the loosest, graveliest, crappiest dirt road you ever did see. We started to walk back to the too busy road when our sag wagon arrived (Lil Lotto). Just in the nick of time too, as the temperature was such that riding wet was ok, but walking wet wasn't. Brrrr. (Total ride: 45 miles, but I left like I coulda ridden fer-freakin-evvvaa.)
Ride 2
We had about 2 hours before we needed to be at the Graduation Open House (at which a great time was had by all) so we headed out from Scottsburg on a few roads I've ridden before. Prince J and I sprinted up every incline we could find for KOM (King of the Mountain) points. He took 1, I took the rest. Mostly I schooled him on the fine art of timing your jump, and keeping a gear in your pocket. Poor kid. In between we enjoyed some great weather, beautiful scenery, and virtually carless roads with Lil Lotto. It felt good. Real good. Again. Yep - riding is FUN again. Yahoooooo. (total ride: 25 miles)
Ride 3 - The Great Race - Elkhart, IN
44 Miles and one word: Ouch. I ended up second in a field of about 15 women. Did I mention it was hard. Well it was. Very hard. I almost quit after 2 laps. There was about 2700 feet of climbing, which isn't much, but it sure felt like it was this morning. This one Category 3 chick was yappin' about how good she was at the start line. Very annoying. (Sews ewes nose, I'm a Cat 4, which is basically beginner, and to be Cat 3, you have to get a certain number of points, by doing well in Cat 4 races). So natch, I'm gunnin' for her. She took off by herself after about 5 miles. About 6 of started to chase, and before long, it was just me and and this tiny little bit of thing trying to catch her. Which we did after working our arses off. Then the 3 of us rode together for about 15 miles, trading pulls to make sure no one caught us. Then the big mouth showed us why she has a big mouth, and usually a clean set of wheels. I kinda saw it coming, as she took a real short pull, and let me and the little one take nice long pulls over a few rollers. Then she stayed even with us up a steep but short climb (she had showed herself as a less than stellar climber early on, so this was a little surprising) and then she took off. I chased as hard as I could and dropped the little one in the process, but never got closer than about 50 yards. She ended up winning by about 100 yards and I was about that much ahead of the 3rd place finisher, who is awfully strong for being as little as she is. So, I guess racing season 2008 is back on. Yea baby!! Oh, and the 2nd place prize money was $65. So, since it cost me $40 to register, and $25 in gas, I got a "free" ride/suffer-fest to boot. How cool am I?
P.S. This toldly (sic)cracked me up. Almost as good as the I-like-turtles kid. Enjoy! (it had me and Josh quoting it as we rode... he was injured... injured bad.)
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3 comments:
Good times! Riding in the rain. Riding in the sun. Racing in Elkhart?
Good call on having the sag wagon. I have a vague memory of looking at the weather for your 70 or so mile ride and thinking maybe somebody was gonna be dampened. Plus the hilliness of the area south of Bloomington surprised me a little, though it may be a matter of relativity. Glad you're feeling better in the Riding Without Pain department. That is huge. And good news for the Cherohala Skyway ride coming up in a month or so.
I need a little clarification on the race. 5 miles in there's an attack, you chase her down and ride with her for 15 miles, and then stay a hundred yards behind her for 20 miles or so? Was xXx out in force for this, or were you off the res?
And thanks for our little "youknow whathedee-id" dude. Cracked me up. Cracked me up bad.
Race clarification: Full disclosure first... I was like the goldfish in Ani DiFranco's song, Little Plastic Castles on this particular course. ("they say goldfish have no memory...the little plastic castle is a surprise everytime") Despite the fact that we did 3 laps of the exact same route, I had no real idea where the hell I was on any given lap. As such, my distance estimates are a tad rough. As in tres rough. In any event, I think the clarification you seek(?) is that I'd estimate she (the winner) took off, away from me and the eventual 3rd place finisher, with about 6 miles to go. I busted my chops trying to catch her, and got close enough to keep my hopes up once or twice, but every time, she managed to let the line back out on me. I considered waiting for the other chick to try to catch her (after trying to do it by myself for a while) but decided against because 1) she was prolly about a mile behind me and I was afraid that if I let the winner get even further ahead even with help we'd never catch her, 2) I figured by doing so I'd also risk my second place spot, as she might be able to outsprint me at the line, and, 3) as I said, I still felt I had a shot at catching the winner, given the fac that there were some hills left (or so I thought) that might give me an advantage. Is that what you were looking for?
As for xXx being in "force", I hitched a ride with a teammate and planned to work with her, but she crashed before even warming up (the incredibly slow speed varietal, in the parking lot, due to a sandpit coupled with a pedal issue) and although she started the race, I had a pretty good idea that she was going to bag it forthwith and she didn't disappoint. Banged up her knee, but probably nothing serious. So yea, I guess you'd call it off the rez. Looking forward to maybe hitting a road race I did last year in Wisconsin called Spring Prairie in 2 weeks. Very similar to the Elkhart race. We'll see.....
Sounds like you had a great time Rider X and finished well in the race, but best of all weren't in too much pain. Fantastic - glad to hear there is improvement - keep it up.
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