Holy Hill

Holy Hill in Hartford was the first road race of Superweek. Ten laps on an eight mile course was reduced to eight laps when the start was delayed an hour. As I was warming up I realized my bars kept slipping since my crash cause they were cracked. No problem, few days before I made friends with the SRAM mechanic for this very reason. New Orbea Orca with Zipp 404s, oh yeah!! Only thing was I had never ridden, let alone raced, sram shifters.
I found the road race exactly what I needed. Plenty of time to recover and not so much fighting for position. I even bridged up to a very short lived break at the start of the second lap. At about two to go Carlos started floating back through the field and I asked if he was ok. "No! Wait for me."
That's what I'm here for I thought.
He changed bikes with Barry and I drilled it back up to reconnect with the peloton. I was pretty gassed and then noticed my neutral bike's stem had shifted a few degrees so that my handle bars and my front wheel were no longer aligned. The course was sketchy and there was no room for bike mechanicals on the mind so I pulled the plug. Later, Carlos thanked me for the help.

After driving to North Shore to visit Wheels and Sprocket to replace my bars, I returned to our host house where Steve, the butcher, had bbq'd four types of braut (apple braut was the best, no joke!), tenderloin and made pie. Little dinner, wine and pie, I felt like the day was a success.

"keep pedaling hard and staying strong in your mind. Mind is everything."
-ms mercedes orten

"the test of one's principles is his willingness to suffer for them, and the test of this willingness-the only test-is actual suffering."
-John Barth "The Floating Opera"

"...I can see the end is the begining,
so I'm not racing, I'm just sprinting.
Cause I dont want to finish.
They diminsh, I replenish....
That's how u let the beat build, bitch!
and the beat goes boom!
ba boom! ba boom!"
-lil wayne "Let the Beat Build"