Sunday, April 20, 2008

What the hell is happening? I'm sitting here at 7 am at the hotel extremely frustrated. Today is Paris to Ancaster. Roughly 1200 racers in this 60km race. Well subtract one off the list.

Had a great ride yesterday. 3.5 hours with the Midland crew and the legs were feeling amazing. Lots of power, already for today. Car loaded and on the highway. Here comes the first delay. Huge accident on the 400 shutting the Highway down. Ok, no problem, take the long way. Traffic is getting thicker and slower. I'm thinking I' m not going to make the 5pm cut off time to pick up race kits.

Of course this leads to me getting a little lost. More frustration. I did manage to get in just before 5 but by now I'm down right exhausted. 3.5 hours on the bike followed by 3 hours in the car. Not fun.

So this is where things really take off. Up early, stretch, eat, drink coffee etc. Fill the bottles, load the car, check out of the hotel, get in the car, turn the key. F#*K. It's turning over but will not start. Yes this is my pretty new Audi that will not start. Lucky the rooms are sound proof otherwise I would have woke up most of the hotel.

Here is where I have to decide. I'm a 20-25 minute drive to the race. I have to be there by no later than 8:15 to get my bike loaded and jump on the bus to the start line. Cab? Ride to the start? Car jack someone? No, to far not enough time, thought about it but 5 years for it isn't worth the race.

Couple phone calls to some friends to vent and I'm on the phone to CAA. The decision was more linked to the ride home., Do I want to sit in A big honking truck on the 401 early on a Sunday morning with no traffic with a coffee. This is also including not being covered in sweat and mud. OR!! do I get to the race, hammer the shit out of it then deal with an extremely long drive home during rush hour traffic uncomfortable and not rolling into my house till god knows what hour tonight.

Pretty simple on what I was going to do. It's funny that as I type this in the lobby of the hotel the front desk staff mentioned that other people have had bad luck staying here for races. This is no more than 5 minutes before I guy comes in to check out. He was here to race also and had to cancel it because of a flight change. Hmmmm the curse of the Comfort Inn? I did have a good sleep but I'm now thinking I should have slept in the car!!

Do things come in 3's? Next week is Mansfield. I sure as hell hope not. Well the plan for today will be getting a couple of hours of hammering in once I get home. I'm into a recovery week so at least I can deal with the car issues.

Hope everyone has fun today. I'm not.

Later

2 comments:

the original big ring said...

D'oh!

Anonymous said...

Look at the brighter things! You are able to race, so you had a stroke of bad luck... I looked forward to this race and because I broke my friggen leg playing soccer... I can only ride my trainer for 30 minutes....


be happy that you can ride and there will be other races... I don't even know if I can race this year!

I love this sport too much now - so much so that I was depressed cause I couldn't race...

be happy that you you were the reason I am on that bike and fighting my ass off to get back on it!

cheers, hugs n kisses and all that jazzz.... Mysty :-)