“Let her try”
Long ago I had aspirations that this blog would capture the crazy “balance” of an armature athlete in the cycling community. I think my post-ride naps have all but killed that dream. The 2012 season is now at a close and we’re all enjoying the off-season and thinking of the season to come. With that comes all the drama of finding the right home. I’ve never imagined not racing for AFWC until this year. I’m just not sure what our focus is and it sure doesn’t seem to be racing. As an officer, I’m going to stick it out one more year but then I have to face the fact that I might be moving on.
This weeks ride was one of those that reminds me that this whole thing is only one aspect of our lives. I’m always blown away how much I need to be reminded of this. It was one of those rides I think everybody thought about skipping. Probably because it was windy, the holidays are fast approaching, there’s just too much going on. I wanted to sleep through it but when I woke up a full hour before my alarm went off I knew that wasn’t going to happen.
The ride started fine; pleasant in fact. I was surprised to see almost all of the regular players at the same time. Kate rolled up at the vary last minute. She looked less than committed but was there none the less. All in all, we rolled out with 14 women including 4 non-members. Things were fine until we got to the top of the long drag where the long group usually turns left. We’re all slowing down when SG starts yelling “straight!! straight!!”. Kate continues to peal off to the left. While SG was trying to figure out what was going on the rest of us had slowed and SG, looking to the left, runs into my wheel and goes down. This is no high-speed collision by any stretch and I’m able to pull forward and stay upright. It turns out Kate had to take a “natural brake”, not that any of us knew that.
SG checks out herself and her bike and then, with a look of vengeance in her eyes, hops on her bike and takes off at what must have been close to LT. The rest of us do our best to grab on for the ride. Kate is still fully drawers down and can’t see us to even know what’s happened. It’s unspoken but most of us in the pack know what’s happening now. After about 10-minutes of Kate chasing us into the wind
Vanessa: Hey, Kate’s trying to catch on to us. Can we slow down a bit.”
Shontell (without missing a beat): “Let her try!! I’ve got some blood I’d like to wipe on her if she does.”
Kate does catch us because she’s a monster. She goes to the front to find out what happened and an argument ensues and she turns around and heads home. I think that is some of us had realized she was turning around, we might have joined her. Someday it will seem odd to me that all of this occurs while we’re moving at 20mph 3feet from each other. For now, that all seems like a totally normal way to spend 3-hours.
The ride ended up being much harder than anticipated because SG was just pissed off. We dropped Amanda twice and had to send Jana back to get here. Even though it was emotional and grueling, It still felt like a team. We didn’t leave anybody behind. Some days I love SG for that.
The really funny part was when we rolled up to the shop the same time as the shorter group was arriving back. They looked all fresh and happy and we looked like something the cat dragged in. We compared war stories over brown cows and called it a good day.