On reflection yesterday in Nomad V Butterfly it really was more about revenge… So, for Lazy Sunday what do you do when you’ve ridden 11 days in a row? Get motherfucking crazy on it of course, in a search for some redemption.
Yes, Sunday, 8.30am, you know where and you know what goes down… If not, then refresh yourself here for a visual overview of Crazies. Its that time when the self confessed finest of the fine, the tips of the swords and the bleeding edge of Singapore cycling nod at each other in the car park (or not if you’re a cunt) and then spend the next hour and 12 to 14 minutes or so having a knife fight in a telephone box that’s equipped with a heater and set at 98% humidity. Joy. Here’s what it looks like on a map, 50km’s on the nose:
“Was your Sunday morning relaxing dear?”…. “Yes, as relaxing as making sweet love with a chain saw”
Astute readers will recall I am 0-4 in finishing Crazies on my last 4 outings (crash, dropped twice and then traffic last week), a stark contrast to two years ago when I would finish in the lead group as comfortably as Scarlett Johansson in a bubble bath. Yes, that sentence makes no sense, but does present powerful visual imagery and should help to take your mind off Monday morning work:
“Have you really run another bubble bath DN?”
So, the aim was simple today… FINISH. Preferably finish in the lead group. If I had been to Herr Doktor its more than likely the prognosis would have been simple in terms of what I had to do:
Indeed. In the sake of aerodynamics and weight (OCD time), no Go PRO footage today, but there were three main things that worked quite hard to assassinate my attempt to finish in the lead group as planned:
- Trucks – Yes, they struck again around Kranji… I started to have a hysterical and panicked PTSD flash back to last week, but this time I was stuck with the bigger group and whilst it took a while and burnt a few matches in the process, we were able to chase back on. Even when some shit riders tried to sabotage it (you know who you are)
- The chain did fucking what?! – Yes, around the Air Force base (the COOL one with F-16’s, fuck yeah), giving it FULL gas and under load the chain pops over the top of the big ring and onto my pedal. A) Massively heart stopping moment B) Massively panicked moment trying to ease it back on as the group sped past me like I was an ugly hooker. Nasty
- My aversion to suffering AND doing nothing – These are contradictory feelings of course, but I am useless at sitting in and whilst I didn’t feel that compelled to attack today, I did feel the need to chase stuff down in a Thomas the gimp tank engine type format. This culminated in a rather large chase up Mandai giving Shaneo a hand to bring back the break. You know the motto, sing it with me gang – “Its better to do your job and ride home solo than be the fuck head that comes 18th”. Smiley face.
So, in the end, I got that loving feeling back and managed to finish with the lead group after sucking up some BIG one heading to the finish. Lets forget it was 4 minutes slower than the fastest one I have ever done, with an average speed of 40kph it still didn’t have a lot of flat spots and its still the closest feeling to a race you can get around these parts – Except with the added excitement of dump trucks that want to maim you to spice shit up.
I feel rather redeemed… All in all a productive weekend with both items on the cycling ‘to do’ list ticked off. The only pic I managed to grab today was en route to Team coffee time, the discussion who wants to KOM first getting to the cafe:
Trust me – NOT the worst offenders today when it came to ignoring the team kit coordination memo…
So, a big week… 16.5 hours and 440km’s in the bank, so not too shabby to be honest. Its actually good to be riding properly again and I have to say that the self assessment on the fitness is returning a thumbs up, well, fuck, you’d hope so wouldn’t you – Its not like I’m lacking for recovery time (cue rage from people telling me to get a job).
Its also been excellent to have some decent group rides going again, a topic that I shall elaborate on in the week ahead… Its time for a day off after 12 days on the bike! Thanks to the Cannasia boys for a smashing weekend on the bike!
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