Saguaro

I dusted off my roadie bike this morning. After six months the tires were happily still holding air. I headed off to Saguaro National Park East to watch Hottie dominate the race. Second place was over five minutes back on the 8 mile course.

At the race I ran into team captain and former single speed state champion Latham, flanked by Dejay, fresh from his impressive cross country ride. It was good to talk to them.

I also ran into hordes of rude park rangers. They didn’t want *my* bike anywhere near the finish line. Six of them sat at the entrance, collecting holiday pay (1.5 time) doing a job that could have been done by one person and definitely could have been done without attitude. They directed me to the bike corral where I found a whole dozen bikes on the ground and in racks. I leaned mine up against a large “NO BIKES” sign and took two steps towards the race. “Sir, we can’t have your bike there, I don’t know how that other bike got there.”

Later someone who finished the race was puking in a garbage can. “Sir, can I help you?” I love fake courtesy when it is meant to be rude.

I picked up a couple pair of smartwool socks (yay) from Latham and headed back before things got too hot.

1pm – A rapping on my window while listening to ‘Hail to the Theif.’ It’s Peltonen S, proving he wasn’t joking about riding in the middle of the day. I’m scared to start riding with him this fall. Though it would be nice to have someone to train with for the Soul Ride. If he does the race he’ll surely blow me away. Of course, he will be severely overtrained by October, so I may have a chance.

One time he and Peltonen G did an 800 mile week fresh off of NO RIDING the previous 3 months. They had the week off of school and nothing else to do, so they rode–North, South, East, West, all the 100+ mile routes into and out of Tucson. Knuckleheads the both of them.