Cyclist - Part II

As for my road bike: The frame was manufactured by Ganna, which is small company from Vicenza. It has an aluminum frame, carbon forks, ITM handlebars and levers, miche breaks, compact 18 speed drive-train, all black paint with gold detailing. All and all it is a well respected company that earns a decent amount of 'street-cred' around these parts. I was invited to a 90 km bike ride last Sunday, which I very foolishly agreed to. I thought I was ready for it, but they chose to head into the mountains...which was almost the end of me. It was a very beautiful ride. But I have never felt on the verge of cardiac arrest so many times in a single day. Most of the other riders in the group were wrinkled Italian gentlemen twice my age (or more!). This only added to my angst, as they dusted me to pieces in the mountains. Unfortunately, this was only to be the beginning of my trouble.

After somehow surviving the trek through the mountains, we were on kilometer #50 or so....already my longest bike ride ever involving by far the most elevation change ever. I was feeling pretty punked but I felt that I might be able to survive as we were heading into mostly flat territory. At the bottom of the last mountain, we were cruising though the center of a small town, most of us taking a stab at our water bottles. I was in the process of gulping when the car in front of be stopped abruptly. I was drinking with my right hand (stupid rookie!) and only had my left hand available for breaking. The left hand break is for the front wheel... Well, if you are cyclist or motor-biker, you know that using only the front wheel break in an abrupt stop usually ends rather badly. And a 'rather badly' is exactly what happened. The bike almost immediately jack-knifed and I was quickly involved in an altercation with the asphalt road. The road won the argument of course.

I was lucky though. My bike was fine and I was only a little banged up. Thank God for helmets! I hoped back on and tried to soldier through the rest of the trip.

This only cued up the next problem which was the speed that the group wanted to finish the ride in. Before long the group started into 40 kmph speeds along the flat roads. When riding by myself, I rarely exceed 32 kmph. I was in even more trouble...

My being thoroughly beaten by the mountains, exhausted by the sheer distance covered, and beat up from a fall, met head to head with my sheer competitive stubbornness (i.e. foolish stupidity!).

I kept up...sort of...and finished the 90 km. But it was a near thing. It has taken four days for me to feel even remotely normal (today). *sigh*

Aurora thought the whole thing was pretty funny, and started jumping on me as soon as I got home. lol

Posted by paul at August 21, 2008 08:38 PM