My bicycle club, the Louisville Bicycle Club, puts on a challenging series of centuries every year called the Tour de Mad Dog (TMD), it's 21 stages, two of which are shorter Time Trials, one flat and one uphill. Other than the TTs, all times are fictitious. As a way to encourage people being social, times are based upon the size of group you finish with, you need six in your finishing group to not incur a penalty, with the winner pulled randomly from all who finished the stage. There are also difficulty bonuses (for longer or harder routes) and bonuses for having crap attached to your bike (or carried on your back) that are also drawn randomly. All these "times" are added up and at the end of the event used to award the yellow jersey winner and the white jersey for best young (under 24) or new (never completed the TMD) rider. I really want the white jersey. I've stated it as my goal since before this tour started.
Up until today I was running second for the white jersey and I knew the white jersey leader wasn't going to make this stage. I didn't ride. I really wanted to. This stage would have been my longest bike ride ever: 140 miles. It would have been my most climbing in a ride ever as well: listed at 11,000+ft (though gps tracks tend to place it a bit lower than that). Completing this ride would have given me good insight into how well my training is going for the gravel event I have in October.
About 14 riders showed up at the 6am start, but only 10 rolled out of the parking lot. A line of strong thunderstorms was putting on a pretty serious light show and headed to intercept. The 4 of us watched them roll out and hung around in the lot for about 20 minutes, watching the radar and waiting to see how bad it was going to get. By the time we felt the first drops, the flashes had already started surrounding us. It was going to be a rough day. The rain was heavy. I've ridden in worse. The lightning, though, I've not pedaled through a storm that electrifying. I don't want to.
Have I lost out in my quest for the white jersey? Maybe, three of the people chasing me did ride. Two of them will pass me today, assuming they don't have something preventing them from finishing the ride, one of those had stated that they will have to miss later rides, so who knows. I may still have shot at white.
I had earlier in the season considered abandoning if I wasn't in a position to take home white. Abandoning requires missing more than four stages in a row, or failing to complete back to back stages. I've abandoned that idea. I've decided this will probably be the only year I try to complete the TMD. Not that I won't continue to ride the rides, but that if I miss some I won't worry about it next year. I'll take home a finishers jersey, white or not, and be proud of the accomplishment. Chasing White or Yellow requires both luck and a level of madness that I just can't compete with.
No comments:
Post a Comment