Never mind that I don’t have any notable race results this year, I’ve bookended the year by trouncing 2 different world champions. When my alarm wakes me at 4:10, the urge to go back to sleep is extremely powerful, but early on I discovered that it is always worth it to show up for a morning ride in Canberra. Each ride has offered something new and exciting for me. This morning, out from the 6 am dawn rolled a High Road kit. The chatter of the other riders suddenly went quiet, and I heard someone mutter, “Bloody hell.”
As a reminder, my first triumph came earlier in 2009 against the reigning gold medalist and former world champion time trialist. She seemed unaware that I beat her. This morning, I was up against a multi-world champion time trialist and Tour contender. I had met up with him earlier in the year on the slopes of Mt. Palomar while he was throwing down on spectators. I discussed the full incident in more detail after the race. This time I was on my bike and started the major climb right on his wheel.
Right away things got crazy on the climb. Blokes were frantically charging up the “mountain.” Some were hypoxic and crashing into curbs. Meanwhile, I was maintaining a more conservative pace, locked in a yo-yo battle with Rogers. The fact that there were several riders in front of us was irrelevant, since the race was farther down the mountain where I was. Also, never mind that I was breathing rather hard and he hadn’t started breathing yet nor was he aware that we were racing against each other. After a tense and agonizing (maybe 5 minute) long climb, I was in the lead (of Rogers) when we summited (i.e. turned onto a street that went downhill).
Of course, he had his excuses after the race during the tea break at the coffee shop, where he showed us a giant crack in his carbon rim that he was riding. And he was riding on just a few hours of sleep, probably with no food or drink either. But those are just common excuses that cyclists use, and I can just point to the sky and say, “scoreboard.” If he points to the world scoreboard, I’ll just ignore that because my name isn’t listed anywhere on that. When it comes to mono-a-mono races with world champions, I’m undefeated in 2009.
Once again, it was well-worth the effort to wake up early for a Canberra bunch ride. I certainly wouldn’t want to miss a chance to see Mick riding in his hometown.
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