This happens when I watch the Tour. I see a stage like today's and I get inspired. Someone does something remarkable on a day that border's on inhuman nad I run out and jump on my bike and decide to do the same sort of thing. It usually builds slowly as I see things that challenge my imagination as an athlete. Today at the Tour it was hot. I mean scorching. It was 92 degrees at the finish ambient air temperature and 115 on the road and Popovitch gets into a break and powers it to a four minute advantage. He refurses to give in and bends an exhausted peleton to his will. The bunch was fried from chasing George Hincapie everytime he got into a break; which was just abobut every break. When George finally wore out, Popo went with Freire and two others and the break stuck for reasons so bizarre as to be perfectly Touresque: McEwen attacked to try and chase down Freire during a piss break and made the rest of the peleton mad so they decided not to work with his team. Popo attacked four times in the last ten kilometers before he finally broke his fellow escapees and rode to victory on the day after the the post-Discovery era officially began at the Tour.
So, I decided to ride from here to Macon today. The air temperature here was 96 degrees and I was going to hammer out 60 miles. Not exactly the 130 miles the Tour riders did but it was just me and not me and 162 of my buddies. I rode strong for 40 miles at 22 mph and then I felt the distinctly peculiar cooking sensation of my legs frying out and poof it was gone. I cut my ride short by 10 miles and limped in after having been on the road for two hours and twenty minutes. It was epic but it was also draining. When we drove around town the temperature there was over 105 degrees whihc meant the road temp/heat index was around 120 degrees. I've been hydrating since 3:00 pm and I still feel thirsty. It was a three and half pound ride meaning if I burned the number of Calories I burned on this ride six days a week, I'd lose three and half pounds each week if I ate only 2400 Calories a day. Of course, that doesn't count the water weight I lost.
So, Discovery showed some powerful pride (one of the greatest motivators there is) on a day made for a break. Tomorrow? More of the same I think. There will be another break. For McEwen, the bigger the better. The same is true for Phonak if all the riders are an hour down or so. That means a break will go it it has the right riders so maybe Chris Horner will get a chance tomorrow to do a little something for himself. Others I expect to see would be Carlos De Cruz, Thomas Voeckler, and David Millar might give it another go after his efforts to get in a break today. If Discovery stays aggressive then Hincapie or Rubiera might make the break as well, though I'm thinking Chechu might be sick given his early departure from the front group on the Tourmalet.
We'll see how it goes. Tomorrow's a rest day...thank goodness.
