Less Than Expected

After three days of reasonable intensity, it was time for an easier day today, so I let the usual Tuesday morning 6:15 a.m. time slip-slide away and rolled out from the house around 6:30. The soreness in my legs from yesterday was a lot less than I had expected, so I guess that's a good sign, but I kept it under 20 mph anyway because, basically, I just felt like I needed to. It wasn't too long after I had gotten going that I looked down and noticed an extra shadow on the asphalt. Dan was running late and had caught me, so we rode together, just a bit faster, out toward Williams Blvd. where we saw Big Richard heading toward us. Now I knew Richard had no doubt started with the group, so something must be up because he doesn't usually turn back early. He said that there was a pretty big group this morning for the Tuesday long ride. Well, it turned out that a couple of the bolts holding his Time cleat to his Sidi shoes had sheared off or something. Now he had ''infinite float" pedals -- at least until that last bolt, the one in front, broke. We picked up the pace another mph and got a little rotation going and he made it all the way back to the pumping station before the final bolt gave way and his cleat clanked down onto the asphalt. Better than expected, I'd say. He still had a few miles left to go and I'll bet by the time he got home his back was sore from all that uneven pedaling.

So when I got home there was no sign of the streets department with those ten shovelfulls of asphalt that they need to finish off the patch on my corner. I wonder how long that will take. The garbage that I put out last Tuesday night is still there, probably because the garbage truck can't squeeze past the construction area that is still all roped off . I'll have to put out another couple of bags tonight. I sure hope they pick it up this time. It's got to be getting pretty rank in that garbage can that has been sitting out in the hot sun for the past week.

Man, I checked out the results from the Soto stage race this morning and looking at the results of yesterday's stage, I can only assume that it was one hell of a death march and that pain was the order of the day. I mean, Bain finished 12th on the stage, but he was 1:21 down, and Tim was 21st at 2:27. Judging from the times, the whole pack just dribbled in almost one at a time. The course profile shows a long, long climb right at the end.