We all dug deep today. I love the many ways that we recognize it in each other.And no doubt, it's one of the elements which brings this community of cyclists together.
I had a few teammates dig especially deep for me today. I feel honored to be on a team which value this so strongly.
Those who raced in the am and did feeds in the pm, must-a done a whole lot of diggin.
I did no more or less diggin than many others today, but I'll share what happened on my end of the bike.
If you have taken a clinic with Nicole Freedman, you have undoubtedly experienced her favorite drill. Its goal is to simulate the race when everything which can go wrong will go wrong and how to own up to it, not give into it, and overcome it. It's a race against your teammates where everyone starts with their chain off. At the whistle, you get your chain on, ride through an obstacle course around water bottles, bunny hop over some water bottles, take off your back wheel, put it back on, grab a water bottle from the ground (to simulate a missed feed), etc. etc.
Today was the real deal.
At the end of the bumps on lap 1, I looked down and swore that my tire was low on air. I asked two separate racers if my back tire looked low. Both confirmed that I "definitely" had a flat. A teammate immediately offered her wheel and then her entire bike (as she had Shimano and I campy). When that didn't work out (we had different pedals), a second teammate offered me her Campy wheel. Wow. We stopped, I undid my wheel, grabbed it, and !$@^& !, it wasn't flat. We TTed through the feed zone, skipping a feed, traded pulls, and caught back on a few miles later. Phew!
Then, on lap 3, I dropped my chain onto my pedal spindle on the tiny roller on the bumps before the real bumpy section. The pack jammed along the bumpies, up the rollers, through the feed zone, and was out of sight, despite my best attempts to catch back on before it was too late.
Panda was alerted to my misery when she passed through the feed zone. She dug and dug and came up with a monstrous pull to launch me back into TT mode. It took me a total of 41min. of diggin, but I caught back on just in time to do the bumpies again(thanks to a slow pack where no one wanted to pull on the last lap).
It was a character building weekend for us all.
And oh my stars, that Pepsi that Linda gave me post-race was good!
14 comments:
panda pulling you back to the pack - wow, my eyes are watering...
great team work, Minties!
teammates are so cool...great job of getting back on after those mechanicals and the heat...and glad that pepsi hit the spot...
wahoo!!
epic. you're amazing!
Well, you'd do it for one of us if the roles were reversed. That's just how it works! Glad I helped, though...on a selfish level it gives my race value...
i'm pretty sure i'm already enough of a character...
strong work gals--it was way too hot for those afternoon races
great racing with you as always! way to catch back on - tres impressive.
yay! good teamwork.
man, ya'll are tough. i'm sweating just reading about it all.
We could see the determinatin in your eyes as you came through the feed the last time. That's rediculously impressive teamwork and mental toughness!
wow, such good teammates. I heard you saying you might have a flat and your teammates immediately asking what you were riding.
awesome job getting back on.
Oh and I just now saw your ncnca post. we saw that wheel by the side of the rode near the four way junction. We were going to pick it up but thought it was wrecked. darn!
i hope you get it back.
marscat: My wheel was found by a ref, Will, who passed it onto Robert. Amazing.
oh good.
wow, sounds dramatic! nice job getting back on!
Well done! I'm so impressed that you made it through all of those misadventures and still managed to finish right there in the pack. Nice teamwork for the minties! And way to stick with it.
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