I’ve got some free time between races right now over here at the Gate City Grind in Pocatello, Idaho. This morning was a road race in a strangely familiar place. My olfactory senses finally triggered my memory when I smelled human feces. Before I moved to La Grande, I also interviewed here and one of the houses the realtor showed us happened to be on the circuit we were racing. Apparently, they hadn’t gotten the septic problem fixed yet either. I wonder if I would have gotten into bike racing if I had moved here instead of La Grande?
The road race this morning was on a pretty benign course but riders kept attacking the whole race. My legs felt lifeless. Perhaps they didn’t like the 140 mile loop Rad Doc and I did Thursday. It only had 11,000 feet of elevation gain. I offered to do a less demanding ride but Rad insisted it would be good physical therapy for his freshly broken collar bone from his Elkhorn crash. Read more
On Sunday morning, I kept my continuous streak of bike races alive for 2008. I rolled out of bed at 4:30 and fired up the internet for some live Paris-Roubaix watching. This was to be my first race at home for a long time. I’ve done 9 races this season already, and spring is just now starting in La Grande. Since Cherry Pie I’ve been away every single weekend, driving for hours and hours. Throw in a 20 hour trip to SoCal and you end up with one fatigued me. All last week I was in a foggy state of delirium that started when I got back from Willamette. So today’s race was kind of refreshing.
It’s amazing what you can get done in a single day when you’re not away racing. I watched Paris-Roubaix live, rode my bike for 3 hours, washed and vacuumed my truck, fixed a toilet, went to Wal-mart, and ordered a few parts for my new bike build project. That now takes care of all the second priority items on my list, so now I can get back to racing again next weekend at Tour de Waitsburg Waitsburg. Read more
