Final Tuesday/Thursday ride before heading to France

We got off to a bit of a late start from the house this morning, raising concern that we could arrive late for the ride, something that is absolutely, positively against the rules. Kevin’s solution was to charge up over Jefferson like a man possessed. We overtook someone who was moving pretty well; Kevin kept the hammer down due to Rule #1. Never pass someone you can’t stay ahead of. As we passed the nursery school where it levels off slightly, Kevin says something like “We had to keep the speed up after we passed that guy”, not realizing “that guy” had latched onto my wheel. Kevin is one of those people who very rarely looks back. Needs to work on that.

Actually did get a couple PRs for segments over Jefferson, which wasn’t a surprise. Well, it was a little bit, given that my Strava records go back over 10 years now. Now, you have to wonder, does this mean I arrive at the start warmed up and ready to go hard, or does it mean I arrive already shelled? A little bit of both, actually. We had one other guy with us, Tom, and Tom can definitely challenge Kevin on Kings. I was able to hang on for a while, but could do little but watch them ride on ahead as we neared the park entrance. I managed to finish just over 29 minutes, still a bit over 1000 VAM, but it definitely wasn’t a strong finish; I couldn’t get many watts going on the steeper sections.

I was glad that Sunday’s short ride didn’t impact me very negatively, if at all.

Thursday morning, 8:05am, and we’re off to France. One of those very long travel days, arriving in Paris 7:45am Friday, getting on a train at 11am and arriving in Lourdes, which will be our base during the Tour de France, around 5pm if I recall correctly. Still a *lot* to get done before we leave! Been packing and figuring things out, but I’m about done for the evening (11:54pm right now), figuring it makes sense to get to sleep and wake up early enough to catch the last 90 minutes of tomorrow’s big stage on TV, while continuing to get things organized. Tomorrow I’m expecting to feel pretty stressed, wondering what I’ve forgotten and what loose ends I might have left at the shop. Fun!






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