I put in my best effort, but couldn't quite do it. By 1:00 a.m. I was already starting to doze off and I knew I wouldn't achieve my goal. The NBC live video of the Olympic road race was great, but with no commentary it was getting hard to stay awake. The live text ticker at Cyclingnews was pretty good, but it wasn't quite enough. Then, when the entire U.S. team somehow failed to put someone in the big 25-rider break that included most of the top riders, I was in complete disbelief. I could see that they sent Jason McCartney up there to sacrifice himself pulling the break back. With most of the top cycling countries represented in the break, he was just getting help from Russia and by the time I finally fell asleep for good, around 2:00 a.m., it was far from certain that they'd catch in time.
So a few hours later when I got up to for the Giro Ride, I checked the still incomplete results and thought my worst fears were confirmed. I was glad to find, after returning from the Giro Ride, that they had indeed caught, and although the U.S. missed out on medals two of the guys finished quite respectively.
The Giro Ride was going well for me until we turned onto Chef Highway and I felt the telltale rear tire squiggle of a flat. I quietly dropped off the back, found a nice shady spot, changed it out and did a nice little time trial, turning around when I saw the group on its way back. I ended up going pretty hard and probably would have benefited from some recovery time back at home. Back in the parking lot after the Giro Courtney stretched out on a towel to work on her problem hip and got some help from both Max and Robin. I don't know, but although she looks nice and relaxed in the photo, it looked kind of painful to me! Actually, I should probably be doing the same thing after my rides, although I doubt I'd get such enthusiastic attention from Max and Robin! Anyway, you know that recovery time I needed? Well, I didn't get it, and instead ended up spending three or four hours outside trimming the big Oak tree and cutting up the resulting truckload of branches in to tiny little pieces while subsisting on little more than soft drinks. Sore hand, sore back, sore shoulders. Shortly after I'd finished that The Wife tells me that the neighbors are coming over for dinner. She runs out and comes back with boiled crabs and shrimp and makes up a nice salad and pasta. It was good, but I most definitely consumed a bit more wine than advisable for someone planning on doing a northshore training ride the next morning.
Today's ride was a good one, despite three flats (not mine this time). Like Saturday, the sky was clear and the air felt just a bit cooler than normal for the first hour or so. Our group of ten ended up doing something around 65 or 70 miles, much of which was pretty brisk. It was a real treat to ride over the famous Watchtower Hill on fresh, buttery smooth asphalt. I had planned on taking some photos when we climbed it on the return trip but forgot all about it when the pace surged. It was a little more than I was willing to handle, so after I came over the top I got together with Charlie and Jaro and we started chasing, because as everyone knows, if you get a gap on the Watchtower Hill, you have to stay on the gas all the way to Tung Road. It's a rule. Ed missed our group, no doubt suffering the effects of his 90 mile Saturday. Anyway, we lost Jaro after a couple of pulls but since we were slowly closing the gap we kept up the pressure. Charlie took a long pull and then shortly after I came through and started pushing up a little hill I heard him say something to the effect of, "I'm done." Ten more pedal strokes and I was back in the draft and shortly after that we came to the Tung Road turn and everybody eased up to regroup. By the time we got back to the car after a final five-mile stretch of hard paceline Ed and I were pretty well cooked. That Subway sandwich I had on the drive back really hit the spot, though.
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