No racing this past weekend, but still managed to cram quite a bit of biker life into two days. Friday turned into a short-notice full day off. I had planned to take the afternoon off to ride down to Barnstable, but then the opportunity for a quick run up to Svelte Cycles HQ presented itself, so I dashed up there on Friday morning to conduct a little business. I wish I had brought my camera, as Justin’s modest digs contain a large slice of biker nirvana. The Gaulzetti road bikes hit all my bike nerd buttons, though that’s not why I went up there. I’ll save that for a later entry.
Then, a mad dash home to make final preparations, suit up and hit the road for Barnstable. Last fall I did the Plymouth-to-Canton direction of Bike Route 1 but the outbound route was new to me. I translated the map into four pages of cues, threw on the MTB pedals and shoes for the walk across the Sagamore bridge, and hit the road. The forecast predicted afternoon rain, so I rode the fender bike, but such precautions turned out to be unnecessary. Except for a suicidal squirrel in Bridgewater, my trip was unremarkable, but for the rare treat of four hours of sunshine and solitude. I didn’t even make a wrong turn.
Satruday afternoon I reversed course and rode home, wishing I’d had the foresight to print out the cues in reverse order. I only made one wrong turn while mentally re-calculating the route, though. Other than that, another long afternoon of steady-state pedaling over the (mostly) lightly-traveled roads of southeast Mass. I wasn’t feeling all that great – by Monday, I had a full-on cold – but back-to-back four-hour days are a rare treat.
No racing this weekend, either, unless you count the first club TT of the season. I’ll just chew on solobreak’s analysis of why we have such a glut of Cat 4s. I’m part of the problem, for sure.