April 17, 2010 Solo Ride, Tarwheels Ride, Solo, Time Trial, No TT, Solo

I started out toward Lynch Store Road to ride a "time trial". I wanted to ride a TT just for the heck of it. It had been years.

It had also gotten back to me that I was too fast for the B-ride. I had heard this a couple times so I thought I'd do something different weeks ago. I still ran into the B-ride a couple times by accident and went ahead and rode with them. I thought it was interesting that a thousand year old man could be considered "too fast". I ride in pain. Pain runs into my right hip from my lower back, middle back. I have upper back pain and neck pain. I have pain running down my arms after riding a bit. I have a cyst on my left knee. I can ride with others for a while. I can still keep up with some riders who are in a higher "category"- for a while. I can ride with the A-ride. They're faster. Not many women, consistently. I'm not looking. I just don't want to have my head behind a man's ass all day either though.

The thing is- in all these rides -I usually just ride in self-defense! That's speed-wise and for safety.

Today I would do the TT out in the middle of nowhere so I wouldn't even see the B-ride.

Sure enough a couple miles out of town The B-ride sneaked up on me. They were going very close to where the Time Trial starts.

Isn't this young lady a darling? Never mind how sweet she looks- she will hurt you. She's strong!

I see many experienced cyclists out on the B-ride today.

So I wonder about doing a TT. Am I nervous? I'm asking myself. Why should I be? I've been "here" hundreds of times/ This is nothing new. I've entered a lot of races/rides.

So what is this puzzlement that I feel?

I have no idea! How do I conduct myself?- Yes - I ask myself!

All I can do is "do unto others as I would have them do unto me". That's all I can do.

So I get up and prepare for a Time Trial. I have a little yogurt. I shower with warm water to loosen up. I roll around on my styrofoam cylinder to get some kinks out of my back.

I pack a little extra drink and food for the TT and ride back.

I loosen up pretty good with the B-ride going out there.

I fill out all these papers. There's two release form. I was told to just get a license for the day. I haven't licensed in a couple years so that sounds right.

It's going to cost $20.

I look around and there are these super-expensive and fast machines.

There are a lot of riders that are fast as the dickens.

They're faster than I anyway and they have the equipment.

Do I want to toss money away at finding out how slow I am?

After a couple of waiting lines. I'm told that I can't get a "day license".

I fail to understand even now.

It wasn't a technical race.

It wasn't a criterium or even a road race.

It wasn't a mountainbike race.

It was a "time trial".

Each rider leaves 30 seconds behind or in front of another rider.

What is the deal?

So- I could ride Citizen. But that's dropping down to a lower class and is not permitted.

Yet!- That is what I'm encouraged to do.

If I've been licensed- and I ride in Citizen -that's cheating

So I quickly decide that the day is over!

I wanted to ride out, ride a "time trial", and ride home. I didn't care that I'd be riding with people that were faster. I didn't care that the bikes a lot of them would be riding were suited for the task and cost mega-bucks.

I didn't care that they refuse to have a category for "people who just want to show up and ride a frickin' time trial without going into debt".

Now I do care. I can't just show up at a USA Racing race and license at the race. I hate the hoops. A lady at sign up told me several times that I could not sign up for a temporary license. She asked the "head referee". He nodded the same. As I was leaving he came over. It wasn't a big deal to me.

Before he and I parted he asked if I was signing up for a "temporary license" for the day.

WTF? What have we been talking about?

"He wonders how it all came to be. He saw a better curtain bow. Did he sign up for all of this? He guesses he did. Life is stranger than fiction.

He considers the homeless, the poverty, and despair in North Gotham. He’d like to alleviate the suffering. He’d like to extinguish a volcano by urinating on it. He has no resources. He doesn’t have control of his own life. He’s running out of time and health.

He thinks of his plight and of those he sees on Druid Avenue. He sees the winos, the prostitutes, and crack-heads. He and they are kindred spirits. They don’t know it.

They see a healthy man riding like the wind on a fine racing machine dressed in fast, flashy cycling attire with shoes that snap onto funny pedals and a helmet to match.

They see a rich kid on an expensive steed, with bread, a lair, a den, a safe place, a sanctuary, a quiet place where the world cannot get to him.

They don’t see a man wearing all he is, has, and maybe going to have. It’s a bike, some clothes, and some speed.

Take away the clothing, the machine, and the diet

For they are all a bunch of tricks,

Then they will see a broken man, tossing and turning,

In a bed of thorns, with a bunch of pricks."

So- I went downtown. I bought $20 of chocolate from the chocolate shop. They make it right there. They have these big pans and they break it up and sell it by the pound.

I chose Pecan and dark. Almond and dark, and Pandora's box which has Almonds, Pecans, Cashews, raisins, and who knows!

I only manged 40.5 miles today but- screw it!

It felt like 41!