Friday evening I put the finishing touches on the eternal bike build. My TT bike was finally complete after cabling the rear and front derailleurs. The process was time consuming, but satisfying, as it finally clicked through all the gears smoothly. I trimmed the cables and was mighty proud of my handiwork. It was then that I realized my attempts to cleverly run the cables resulted in handledbars that could not be turned. What an idiot I can be! With no other cables on hand I called it a night.
Saturday, I might Giuseppe in Columbia for our regular ride. With plans to do the State TT on Sunday still intact, I didn't want to go terribly hard. We kept it on the flats and put in a few hard efforts into the headwind on the trip down to Harrisonville. On the return trip I dosed my workload and didn't work much. The warm, humid air still took some energy out of me.
I bought another set of cables on the way home from the ride. After showering and eating, a bad headache set in for the remainder of the night. Combined with the realization that I would have to wait about three hours to race after registering on Sunday, not to mention the two hour drive to Jeff City, I chose to skip the TT and just do our usual ride on Sunday.
Sunday was scheduled to be the hottest day of the year. What did Patrice and Giuseppe want to do? Ride to the covered bridge, of course. By the time we got to High Ridge our bodies were already wilting and the creaking bottom bracket on my bike was as bad as it has been. We pushed onward along Rock Creek with the intent to ride down to Four Ridge at least before turning back. My bike was really noisy on any incline and I didn't want to be tackling the along Old Lemay with a bike that obviously needs some work done to it. I peeled off and headed home, not one bit sad about cutting the ride short on such a hot day.
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What a great finish to Stage 15. Alot of the pre-race reports of the climb to Prato Nevoso were that it was not a terribly hard climb so I did not have big hopes for much of a shakeup in GC. If that wasn't a difficult climb I credit the riders for making it so. The leaders sent one attack after another. Between Sanchez, A. Schleck, Menchov, Kohl and Sastre, who looked bad for half the climb, it was one surge after another that put Evans on the defensive all the way until he finally cracked. I will give Evans credit for fighting hard but he looked very vulnerable for the next couple days if the others continue ride in the same way.
I'm curious how much effort will be put into tomorrow's two big mountains. There is such a long descent to the finish, it might blunt the efforts of the contenders. The contenders still need time on Evans to protect against his TT ability. I'm not sure they can put all their eggs in the last, brutal mountain stage that ends on Alpe d'Huez Wednesday.
Saturday, I might Giuseppe in Columbia for our regular ride. With plans to do the State TT on Sunday still intact, I didn't want to go terribly hard. We kept it on the flats and put in a few hard efforts into the headwind on the trip down to Harrisonville. On the return trip I dosed my workload and didn't work much. The warm, humid air still took some energy out of me.
I bought another set of cables on the way home from the ride. After showering and eating, a bad headache set in for the remainder of the night. Combined with the realization that I would have to wait about three hours to race after registering on Sunday, not to mention the two hour drive to Jeff City, I chose to skip the TT and just do our usual ride on Sunday.
Sunday was scheduled to be the hottest day of the year. What did Patrice and Giuseppe want to do? Ride to the covered bridge, of course. By the time we got to High Ridge our bodies were already wilting and the creaking bottom bracket on my bike was as bad as it has been. We pushed onward along Rock Creek with the intent to ride down to Four Ridge at least before turning back. My bike was really noisy on any incline and I didn't want to be tackling the along Old Lemay with a bike that obviously needs some work done to it. I peeled off and headed home, not one bit sad about cutting the ride short on such a hot day.
-----
What a great finish to Stage 15. Alot of the pre-race reports of the climb to Prato Nevoso were that it was not a terribly hard climb so I did not have big hopes for much of a shakeup in GC. If that wasn't a difficult climb I credit the riders for making it so. The leaders sent one attack after another. Between Sanchez, A. Schleck, Menchov, Kohl and Sastre, who looked bad for half the climb, it was one surge after another that put Evans on the defensive all the way until he finally cracked. I will give Evans credit for fighting hard but he looked very vulnerable for the next couple days if the others continue ride in the same way.
I'm curious how much effort will be put into tomorrow's two big mountains. There is such a long descent to the finish, it might blunt the efforts of the contenders. The contenders still need time on Evans to protect against his TT ability. I'm not sure they can put all their eggs in the last, brutal mountain stage that ends on Alpe d'Huez Wednesday.
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