Bridge Training on the Fixed Gear

This weekend started out off on a sour note for riding. Saturday it rained all day up in the mountains and there was nothing left to do but clean the house, suffer from allergies and get into arguments about what is the proper way to clean. I made it through Saturday by taking a hike at Moses Cone Park in Blowing Rock and watching hours of old Tour de France tapes from "84-89" and watching Paris-Robioux "84" which happens to have the worst music from John Tesh. That guy is way before my time and the music almost made the cycling unbearable to watch. In fact the music was sooo it put me to sleep. The only problem is i was falling asleep before the most important moments so we would rewind to watch it again and again...

I hit the hay with hopes that Sunday would be nicer and that we would be able to go on our 75 mile ride. 75 miles is usually no big deal for me. I quite enjoy them especially when it includes the 10 mile 181 climb. It's about an hour of climbing but it's not so steep you're hating life and questioning why you are cyclist.

Today was the exception. About 20 miles into our group ride my gears started slipping and I pulled over to tweek some cables. Now i have absolutely NO mechanical skills, in fact it's my least favorite part about cycling. Luckily we had a mechanic on the ride so he stepped up and seemed to fix it. We started again and i shifted once and then my gears got stuck in my biggest gear. I could only get in my big-big and little-big and we were approaching 181. There was a steep roller leading up to the climb and I was keeping my mouth shut about the gears cause when you are the only girl on the ride and you have mechanical issues, all the guys think you are a whiner and that b/c you are a girl that doesn't know anything about bikes it's your fault we have to keep stopping. So i grunted up one more climb and got off the bike. The poor little mechanic hated me since it was his day off from the shop and he was having to fix my bike. My cable had snapped and he said he can give me 19 to ride in or maybe a 17 to finish off the ride. He rigged it up and i was stuck in that freaking gear for the rest of the day. Now i wasn't too happy about this. Nothing sux more than climbing in a huge freaking gear when you are spinner. I would prefer a 27 anyday in the mtns but today I had a 19. I started the climb in good spirits. That lasted 3 miles till it got steep and everyone had passed me leaving me by myself on this horrible climb. Now if those guys were "gentlemen" they would have all got in the same gear as me and grinded up that damn mountain! I had had enough. Got off my bike, took off my helmet and stuck out my thumb. Hah not 10 seconds later a caravan of downhillers that were going up the mtn to ride pulled over and gave me a lift. AH THE POWER OF BEING A CHICK IN LYCRA...I stuck my head out the window and heckeled all the guys that left me at the base of the climb and yelled, "See you at the top, SUCKERS." That was fun until the downh'ers broke it to me that they were only going up about 3 more miles...Hum that would leave me with about 4 more miles to climb. Well it was better than nothing. They dropped me off and I started pedaling again. More grunting and a few little tears later, i reached the store at the top of the climb and waited on the group. I still wander what the hell took them so long.

With about an hour left in the ride, I decided it was time to get home. These guys wanted to dawdle on the bike. Not me, I went to front and decided to get this moving. So i attacked and pulled away for about 10 minutes with only one bridging up to me on the parkway. We started the 221 decent which is tons of fun and has some great switchback turns. I used to hate decending until about a month ago. I finally came to grips with it. If you gonna ride in the mtns and not get dropped on the decents you gotta suck it up, tuck and turn. It so much fun now. We got back to the car and I was BLOWN from those 72 miles but in some ways it was nice to have a change of workout. Mashing the big gears can help you. My power was decent and I felt like i was riding strong.

Today I am shaking off a little wine hangover Last night we had to say goodbye to Little DANE HARLAN aka the Hussie from Hickory, his parents gave him that name I swear! He is a DeFeet (www.defeet.com) employee and friend who is moving to Seattle to work for Macy's. We wish him the best and ask that he stay far away from all washing machines. He has a unique way of breaking them...He will have to tell you all about it. Here is a pic of Little Dane...

Off to the best bike shop in NC, Luna Cycles of Lenoir. The guys have informed me that I have a single-speed not a fixed gear. So I am going to let them do their magic on my bike and bring back the nice little 25 cassette. Check them out www.lunacycles.blogspot.com

Now it's time to train and get ready for some upcoming races. I have had a small break after BOA and Toona and now i am ready for some crits and shorter RR's like the US10k in Altanta, GA the first weekend in Sept. Keep checking in for more race updates and exciting news about my upcoming job!

Thanks for reading!