BCBR Day 5, Canada Day

Rain at start and whole climb.  Big climb, nice fun one.  Chain suck for me, so I had to try to do the middle ring, but I'm not powerful enough to do it all morning at current fitness and weight.  Fun though.  Talked to Regan a little every day, I start hard to stretch the lungs then he comes by in the middle.  I'm going deeper into the hole every day, not recovering up to same level each day as of yet, even with a conscious effort to ride at a sensible pace.  The traverse with all the skinnies is pure joy, this is good skill building riding that's probably more accessible to a broader range of the group, plus less punishing.

Highway 101 descent, which is pure joy on two wheels.  Ranks right up there with heaven I think, and after the first few days of hell and purgatory mixture (inside my body, not the race), it was pretty sweet.  Rode the drop in to it Nutbrown style as I seem to recall it's his birthday either today or close to today, I try but am not super good with that stuff.  Either way, I had it in my mind that it was, and that was motivation to honour his skills.  That steep chute with all the wooden retaining wall drops was on my mind early... positive imagery worked, I just held the line and rolled, it's the temptation to brake that kills you there.

Cold showers after - the shower trucks here are run by goons and are consistently crap year after year on the reliability side.  Funniest was Gian yelling "it's f-cking ice cold" upon entry in the super factual sounding Swiss German accent.  Oh well, an ice cold one after a day in the rain toughens you up, if hypothermia doesn't get you.

Mical made my day with a half eaten sandwich she couldn't finish, funny what can make your day at a bike race!

This might have been a day ago on the ferry, but I just remembered now.  Carena Dean in the fore of the ship with all middle aged three day unshaven men - "is it hot in here or is it just me?".  Uhh, Carena it's you, especially in this crowd, and the fact that you laughed once you figured it out to break the silence made everyone else laugh too. 

I've ridden dowhill the last few days quite a bit with the same pair.  I caught them at one point but it was super hard, then passed when one guy dropped a chain.  I pushed it to stay away, but they reeled me in too.  When I saw them later in the day, they asked if I was the guy riding the Scalpel with the sketchy Ralph's (the only back handed compliment of the trip I'll take thus far).  I'd prefer more traction as the knobs are rounded, but it's funny what you can get by with.