I Gave It My All (Part Two)

Friday - 6:45 am

3 riders - coming up fast on my rear.

This time I play it cool.

I let the 3 rides glide pass me. The last one says to me, "Hop on." I say, "Thanks, but I'm fine."

[It's better to chase than to be chased.]

I lose visual contact, but I pedal hard to stay within striking distance.

As I head into the rollers, I see the 3 guys about 1/4 mile up the road. I decided it's time to take care of business.

I'm flying up and down the rollers on the drops - M. P. style.

I finally catch up after a stout effort; they look surprised since they thought they dropped me miles ago.

I say hi and keep on pedaling hard.

The 3 guys are chasing me like a rabbit on a greyhound track.

I'm in pain; asthma is kicking in; my stomach hurts like heck.

But I kept pushing it. I'm not giving up this time.

They catch me on the last hill & we all hit the traffic light at the same time.

We rode for a bit (really nice guys) & then said our goodbyes.

So, what's the lesson here:

ATTACK where you are the strongest & don't give up the fight.

I Gave It My All

There's a little Tour de France inside all of us.

Tuesday morning, 7:25 am

I looked behind me & there he was, about half my age, on a nice bike & wearing a full racing kit.

The next 7 miles or so are hills.

I just had a new SURLY Pacer steel fork put on my road bike yesterday, so I give it my all & go.

At one point, I was about 50 yards up on racer boy.

At the start of the first big hill, he was about 30 yards behind me.

We fight it out in the "mountains".

Racer boy finally passes me on the last hill.

He says, "Man, you were flying. Sit on my wheel." But I do a stage 16 Landis & bonk out.

I lost the stage, but it was a good fight until the end.

The late Marco Pantani would have been proud.