century rides and columbian sock sacrifices
montezuma's revenge!
Ahhh, dear reader.
I accomplished something special today.
I managed to get my underpants on after my post ride shower.
And I did this without falling down!
I KNOW
Incredible eh?
You see, falling down has been an issue for me today.
The problem?
I’ve been clipped into my pedals.
Normally I prefer flat shoes when I ride.
But with a drop bar bike, the trend seems to be special stiff soled shoes that clip in to the pedals.
There’s a rookie move that happens to clipped in riders when they’re tired - especially when they’re new to clippy clip shoes.
They come to a slow stop but fail to get their shoe to detach from their pedal.
Then?
They just fall over like a sleeping cow tipped by some naughty frat boys on a dare.
It’s the biggest noob / kook / rookie move out there.
And today?
Today was my day to fall like a drunk fucking toddler, asleep on his feet, directly onto my side.
100 miles, 160.9km
I’ve done this before.
I’ve even gone further.
So I started out the ride prepared and with a sense that this was possible.
In fact?
Since I’ve done it before and a prepared well for the ride, I was a little lay say fair.
How hard could it be?
That was my attitude.
And dear reader, I now have an answer:
Much harder than I anticipated. Much harder than I imagined.
This fact was especially true because when I fell I damaged my bike and did the last 80km without the luxury of my two most easy gears.
Started shakey, took a big sad trombone in the middle but finished strong.
Zeke was a goat who pulled us along.
And the Columbian?
He rode home with only one sock due to a desperate shit in the woods just 20k from the finish. He struggled for that last 20k.
I guess you could say he was ‘pooped’.
And if you’re wondering why only one sock?
Take a moment.
Think about things.
What would you do?
So, this summer if you go out hiking, look around, count socks.
And if you see a hiker wearing only one?
Watch where you step for the rest of your hike.
The ride by the numbers:
163.41km
3995 calories burned
6787 ml of sweat
61.3 km / hour top speed
18.5km/ hour average rolling speed.
11 hours and 9 minutes on the road
8 hours 50 minutes rolling time.
And my arse?
It hurts.
Now sleep.
Keep spinning your fools!
