Un Tranquille Apres Midi

"A Calm Afternoon"

It's been a swell week. Tomorrow, we've got a tiny race: a 7k uphill time-trial right here in the Ardeche, about 20 k's from Aubenas. Not exactly my scene, but it's a modest 4-5%, and most importantly -close to home! I'm definitely relieved at not having to spend 6+ hours in a car in transit. Those car rides, particularly the agonizing drive home...they're rough. Especially now that the auto-route (tollway/highway) is jam-packed with all of Europe coming to the South of France.


So this week. First week in a long time that I was able to focus entirely on the bike. In other words: there wasn't anything else to do or people to bother, so I rode. lots. It's Saturday now, and a quick count shows 23 hours since Sunday. Definitely my longest week in some time. It's mostly been tempo/almost-tempo riding. No intervals. No drama. Actually, some drama: a couple weeks ago, while loading up the cars before a race, either a clueless director (likely) or teammate (unlikely) slammed the rear hatch onto my SRM head unit, smashing the mounting bracket up without saying a word to me!!! I tried to repair it, but it's beyond it, and now i'm left with a $850 paperweight. Email-tag is always a challenge with the SRM dudes, so it'll wait at least until I get state side again.


Just bums me out and angers me a bit that no one stepped forward to claim responsibility...gah. C'est la vie, non? So no more HR, no more speedo, no more wires, no more data. It isn't too bad, though. Just me and the ipod now. I hope that come November and the start of base i'll have it all working smooth and clean. And the moral? Be careful with bikes when loading and unloading, particularly if it isn't your own stuff! 90% of wear & tear on the bike (with me, anyway) occurs during this time -not while actually being raced, ironically. And f-in claim responsibility if you do fffffkk something up!

A bit of an abrupt end to an entry, but I need to sleep!