On Sunday Morning Rides and Other Things

No I have not stopped writing my little novel, I just found a little time to work on this Blog as well. Anyway before I get into the Sunday ride, I should add one detail I previously omitted from the events at the ITT I did on Saturday.

The ITT was on an open road, there were police on hand and notices advising motorists a race is in progress but despite the fact that this was a quiet country road that could have been closed without serious impact for a the four or five hours on a Saturday morning, it was left open. As a result besides sharing the road with fellow trialists I had the chance to share the road with motor vehicles.

Just after the turn around near Stoney Lake, a minivan came along and passed me, but for whatever reason chickened out when the time came to pass the guy not 5m in front of me. The minivan sat between us and all I could do was mutter expletives as I breathed carbon monoxide and drafted the damn thing. Finally after about 30 seconds I got fed up with the motorist and rode in the oncoming traffic lane around the minivan. So I did break a major rule of time trialing I drafted, in my defence though, I was trying really hard not to. (Question, why can't the OCA just close the damn road for the morning? sigh.)

Anyway yesterday I went for a ride with the BCC, it was a very scenic route through rolling hills North West of Toronto. The company was great and the speed was just about right. The fact was you cannot do much better than the ride I had yesterday... well sort of. There is a hill, on Mount Pleasant Road near Kleinburg, this hill has a grade of about 10% and rises through about 100m of elevation. I was, I thought, justifiably proud of the fact that I was the first person in our group to complete the climb. The view south east from the top was astonishing. Anyway we rode home, it was a very friendly and pleasant group ride, the sort I really like and I was happy - but for the fact that I was drinking fluids too fast, ran out of supplements and was just about to start bonking (I was drinking plain water for the last 45 minutes or so) as I got home.

After the ride, and a lot of food, I set to work cleaning my new Roubaix. Now while cleaning my bike I like to have the television on, so I had a choice, I could watch what would turn out to be a Spanish victory at the World Cup, or I could watch a rerun of the Tour De France. As anyone who knows me would know, I watched Andy Schleck clobber... well everyone, it was beautiful! (Come on, the Tour or a football game? I can see a football match anytime, but this is The Tour!) Except, and this is why I'm not so proud of my hill climbing abilities, Andy did his little clobber routine against everyone on a Category 1 hill. At one point during the climb Phil Liggett was saying something to the effect of "the lower part of the mountain is only 7 or 8% but this section, for the next 3 or 4km is 9.9 to 10% grade." The best part, the stage of the tour the guys did yesterday, stage 8, ended with a Cat 1 hill, it was preceded by a couple Cat 4, a Cat 3 and a previous Cat 1 climb and the guys covered almost 190km.

Memo to self, I will never be a great, or even all that good, sigh.

Of course I already knew that I won't be Mister Amazing, but still, to have one's own mediocrity shoved in their face like that, it hurts.