Another sunny day here in Arizona. Today’s high only got to 72 so I went with the long sleeve jersey. Actually it was just in the upper 50s when I left so that’s why I had the sleeves on. The helmet strap tan is loud and clear now. After a couple more weeks I’ll have to post a picture of that on here.
The highway up to 40 has some nice grades for climbing fast, but when it splits to two lanes the shoulder is only about six inches wide. When it’s single lane traffic the shoulder is about eight feet, so no complaints then. At least I made it through the sketchy spots alright.
Once back into town I started to feel a squishy flat on the rear. I thought I had a flat, then I didn’t, then I look down at it, then I thought it was ok, then it felt soft again. This thinking went on for about a minute, just as long as it took for the thing to go completely flat. I found a side street and pulled out the wheel, leaning over to get a good hamstring stretch. I found the little thorn that was messing things up and somehow got it stuck into my thumb before I threw it to the ground. It wasn’t about to stop making pain, one way or the other… I got what I thought was a descent amount of air in there with my mini pump and back at it. I noticed the seals on the pump weren’t so tight anymore and it was leaking about half of what I was putting in so it took awhile.
Now about two miles from home after three and half hours of riding I see this guy on a road bike ahead of me. Most of the riders here are 60+ so there’s no problem blazing by them (none are as fit on the bike as my grandpa is). Just as I pull even with this guy I slam my wheel into a rock on the road. Pssssssssssss, I continue to coast around the front of him over and drift over to the curb. He just looked and kept going, what a nice guy…. I had the patch kit along, but I wasn’t about to mess with that so close to home so I just rang up Grandma who came to my rescue with theTaurus. At least I still got in the ride goals, but it’s a bummer not to finish the ride on two wheels. I guess a new pump goes on the list, or some new seals for the one I’ve got. I wonder what trouble Sova is causing in Eau Claire?
Entries (RSS)