That night after the mother stage part deux we headed up in the hills outside of Mosier to get our pasta feed on with Cutler, Varland, and the Kauper crew (plus some other IJM.org team members). Maggie labored going up the climb - but showers and food beckoned at the top so I would have gotten out to push her if need be.
One of the perks of being on local cycling team is taking advantage of their goods - and Jessica's Cucina Fresca delivered. It's pretty amazing how much food skinny cyclists can put down without hesitation.
We slept like babies in the van that night - mainly because it was super quiet - and were awaken by someone who decided to start moving things in and out of his car at 6 am. Open door. Close door. Open. Close. Open, open, open - close, close, close. Then he started up his car - and was ready to squeeze past the van, which didn't have enough room... so I hopped up in my sleeping bag and rolled Maggie forward a couple of feet. He pulled forward, then parked his car - blocking us in. Somewhat hilarious in that "I'm- not-quite-awake-yet-and-you-got-me-up-for-no-reason" kind of way.
Regardless - we had to get up too, so after a quick coffee brew off we went to the time trial start.
We arrived a little over an hour before the start - ample time to warm up and get ready. Except my heart rate wouldn't get up over 140 bpms. Uh oh. Plan B- I head out to the road to see if I can get it up out there. 150 bpms. With the clock rapidly approaching my start time, I calmly work my way to the start and am surprised I'm able to put in a harder dig than expected. We're not talking world records or anything - but for being fatigued and day three of hard racing - I still come out with a 12th place and am looking forward to the crit that afternoon.
Back in the school parking lot, we fire up the stove and start working on some more pasta with turkey, asparagus, onions, bok choy and chill. We only had a few hours between stages so we relaxed and propped the feet up. Bringing Maggie to this race was the best decision I could have made.
Stage Four to come...
1 comment:
I knew you wouldn't soft pedal it! Thank you again to both you and Chris for coming over and sharing dinner with us, it was so nice to hang out (sort of) outside of a race.
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