A week of mostly rest is complete. I’m feeling much better now. Though I thought I was going to need more like 6 months of rest after I rode to the dentist and back (25 miles) Wednesday. I was deep in the pain cave–in more ways than usual. I’ve never been so miserable on a commuter bike before.
Yesterday I rode most of the way out to the ‘Academy Village’ (where apparently only Academics are allowed to live, ha). There was a crew leader training session for the 25 miles of new AZ trail out in the Rincon Valley / Santa Ritas. I’m very excited to see this trail get built, though I know it will be a bit of a trying process.
See: [url=http://www.aztrail-build.org]http://www.aztrail-build.org[/url]
To sign up for the Oct 3rd date (this weekend) or get more info on all of the work dates.
Today I finally got out for a real ride out at Tucson Mountain Park. I met Jon on the way to campus, then hooked up with new grad students Dave and Benji. Both great riders, but Dave was especially impressive.
One of his first comments to me (about his singlespeed) was that his gear (2:1) should be good enough to ride anything “around here.” Although I wouldn’t say he was boasting (he’s just not the type), I still made certain to make him walk. Not just a little bit–extended walking.
We started on Tech Pass. 1 dab for me, ugh. He was ripping it up for a while but ran out of juice before the difficult part. He walked.
I let him lead on the downhill and watched in awe as he cleaned it on his first try. I can ride the trail as well, but on first attempt my chicken-out urge would be sure to overwhelm.
I thought it would be interesting to take him down Golden Gate, so we headed up the climb. Luck was on my side until about 100 feet shy of the pass–where the challenges are considered more of a formality than actual challenges. I did pass another rider at that point, so I can use that as my excuse, but in reality I should have just ridden it. A clean ascent of Golden Gate eludes me for another week. The rest of the crew followed, with Dave most definitely walking. He could ride maybe every section on his single, but the whole thing? Buena Suerte.
The downhill was a gas as usual. Dave battled it out on his rigid fork. Perhaps most impressive was him riding the sharp left hand turn that is usually a guaranteed walker for first time riders. “Oh shit, the trail’s over there” is the usual thought that comes to mind. A few quick hops of the real wheel and Davey boy was bouncing his way down the ledges. Nicely done.
Dave and I stopped dead in our tracks: a desert tortoise in the trail. We watched our little friend blink (and wait for us to leave), but there wasn’t any sign of Jon and Benji. Benji had crashed, Jon waited, then crashed himself on an easy section (while looking back). Later Dave got some Cholla in his feet, so my tweezers made many an appearence.
It took almost all of my willpower to keep my from letting it rip up the backside of Gates Pass. Jon led it out with some serious strength, with Dave and Benji on his wheel. It’s so hard to resist, but I kept my gear easy and spun up the pass. As it got steeper our singlespeeding friend got faster and faster. From my vantage below it looked like Dave was riding about 6 times faster than the roadie he passed just at the top.
Struggling for traction on Golden Gate had my heart pumping a little harder than I had intended, but I am proud of myself for not hammering out Gates as well.
I was feeling top riding back through town. So top that I hopped off my bike on my driveway and proceeded to slam my left knee into my pedal. Brilliant. It still hurts a bit, so I wait in aprehension to see if this is going to be a multi-week long injury. I’m such a retard when it comes to my knees.
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