Thats one in the bag

Man oh man, was it ever hot out there. Seems like Fred and I take the heat with us wherever we go. I woke up feeling like a big bag full of mashed up... well whatever. We had to do some wrenching on the bikes, and I was not very efficient and it ended with us almost missing our start. We drove out there and only arrived maybe 15 minutes before the gun went off.

We were at the very back of the field and it took me about 30k or so before I even saw the front. By that time the break was up the road, and the group that bridged was getting antsy. I made one doomed attack and then sat back in. Thank goodness, because we were only a few miles from the climb and if I had attacked any later I would have been dropped for sure. Poor Steve Reaney found that out the hard way. I struggled up the climb and then some idiot from the COle SPort team had a major feeding fail and knocked 3 bottles to the ground right in front of me. With hands like that I can see why he's a cyclist and not, say, a pianist. I ended up riding almost the whole race with just two bottles. Doesn't sound that bad, except we were averaging almost 30mph in almost 100 degree heat.

I had no idea what happened until I just read the report because we rode straight back to the house and then couldn't find a ride back to the start because our phones were in the car. Awesome.

We're staying in a house that belongs to Freds roomates sister. The parents of the husband of aforementioned sister cooked us dinner and then gave us a ride to the car. All in all an enchanting evening...minus the two hours I spent in the bike shop trying to diagnose and fix A) a broken spoke and B) poor shifting. After two hours of me sitting on the floor like a tired dog (in fact there was a tired dog imitating me) the guy decided that the shifter is toast. This is not good, as I do not have the money or the time to replace a costly shifter. I plan to beg the Shimano guys for mercy tomorrow, but if that doesn't work... well people rode on 9 speed just fine for many years. Seth, the guy a the shop was awesome, actually. He tried everything from derailleur alignment to new cables and housing and when he couldn't fix it he hardly charged me a dime. Pretty rad.

So, I'm gonna hit the sack. Race report for Boise is coming I swear! Tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll do it. Word is law.