During yesterday's ride I made the mistake of telling Kevin that I had signed up for the Tour of Champions, a three-day event for MS150 top fundraisers, to be held this September in Fort Collins, Colorado. The event includes fully-supported bike rides and while I don't know the routes yet, for sure there will be some mountaineering to be done. I suggested that I needed to get in shape for the ride and like a good domestique he immediately began planning a training regime that would get a fat-boy flatland rider ready to take on the Rockies. I can see a few trips to Sealy in my future.
A late-ish start from my place meant that we had to use the back parking lot at Zube, adding a mile to the route just getting to the course. A strong wind out of the south and southeast made it pretty easy on the run out and pretty tough on the way back. We ran into some Mules at the Exxon - Paul, Marian and Meggin, who didn't fancy the scheduled club ride around Montgomery (neither did I - too far, too many hills, too long a ride). I have to say that I don't feel like much of a Mule at present. The club seems to have been taken over by the higher end riders, which is fine but there needs to be some allowance made for the mere mortals too. When the ride schedule includes a 45 mile, 17 mph pace recovery ride, I definitely feel out of my depth. Apparently I'm not the only one, too.
We took the standard route back, avoiding any chance of confronting the hell hounds. The route that takes us past their lair was straight into the wind yesterday, so although we would have had the element of surprise (they wouldn't have heard or smelt us), no serious sprint would have been possible and there would have been blood.
The title of the post comes form an excellent book about the tour, "French Revolutions" by Tim Moore. Highly recommended for bikers and non-bikers alike.
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