Tour of California training ride
Today I had the chance to catch a glimpse of stage 7 of The inagural Tour of California .
I got into watching road races thanks to all the hype built around The Tour de France. I learned names like George Hincapie, Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer, Dave Zabriskie, Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich and many more. When some of these big names were going to be close to home, I knew I had to be there.
I anticipated a lot of people and thus, a lot of traffic as well. Mike K. and I decided to park 2 miles away and ride our commuter bikes to the event. I chose to take the Xootr Swift thinking that was going to be an easy 5 mile ride.
Man was I for a big surprise! Not only did we have a head wind, right smack on the middle of the ride I saw a yellow sign with a 15%
and yes, there I was, out of shape with a bike that has a 52X27 as it’s ‘granny gear’ ratio. I made the effort to climb that hill, but, 3/4 of the way my lungs and my legs just gave out. Once I walked with the bike to the top of the hill, there it was…. another hill, almost as steep, but shorter. I took advantage of going downhill first and then climbing this smaller hill. This time I made it all the way up. Going back to the car was the same story, I made it 3/4 of the way up the hill, but boy did I have fun on that descent.
This short but ass kicking LiveStrong training ride was sponsored by Shannon Villalta. Thank you very much for your contribution.
