Oopity

I'm so far behind in writing it's really hard to get back into but I really need too. I think the quality of the first few will suffer a bit because I don't have the focus to invest 4 to 6 hour for a single post that happen months ago. I'll add flashbacks, call them, Augmented Realities as a way to replace the human drama if I skip over something that augments the context of the current realities. 

Yep, same way they ended St. Elsewhere. The entire series was nothing but the imaginings of an autistic child. 

Or maybe your more comfortable with The Newhart's Dick Loudon waking up as Dr. Bob Hartley (Newhart's character from The Bob Newhart Show) 

So the Oopita Doopita as told by DeathRider and billed as "an anything goes bike race/ride" was the last post I dropped off at. I don't recall why. I did break some ribs but that wasn't until Thanksgiving, you recall turkey day. Wow, so it's March. That may have been a flashback....

We really need to give a ton of applause to the guys putting on the free races to basically give the finger to UCI and it's ridiculous fees and guilty looks about all the doping they allowed.

We start this ~75 mile ride on a cold morning with a late start and a lot of dancing around trying to stay warm. The crowd grows to maybe 100, I don't recall and it don't matter.

My good buddy Blake joins me for a semi-buddy ride. DeathRider is there for the start but he's to fast and crushes it with the cool kids off the front. I get the fever and lean into the gears as well. I lose Blake in traffic as I attack the pack and push myself to the front of the 2nd pack. I can see the leaders and know I'm going to crack but I stay on the nitros and burn the engines out trying to bridge the gap. I pull withing a few 100 yards and blow up in spectacular style. I need to regroup with Blake, take off an extra layer, cool down and lard some water. I'm roasted but it was totally worth it.

Blake and I reconnected and started talking about navigation. The navigation cards are weak and require some knowledge of the environment. We have that until 50+ miles in.

Rest stop about half way. This was when the fun ended and the wind killed us and navigation challenges killed the fun.

This is totally lost at maybe 45 miles. For the next hour we pick up lost riders dropped from faster teams. We are in the far west metro and none of us really know where we're going so we backtrack and struggle and it just kills the fun.

 

After a few more hours of hills and hard headwinds my knee is giving me all the pain I can to deal with if I have little to gain from it. I need to put down 20 more miles and then ride 20 miles home. Remember I got dropped off and the race ends in Minneapolis and I'm more Saint Paul. I leave the last of my buddies after we have snacks for my ride home. They finish around 7th place so maybe I should have held out and finished.

I ride to the train and jump on to save me many miles. Once off the train it's dark and I elect to call in a ride. My knee is a mess and I'm worried I went too far on it. I know now that it took three weeks to recover.  That ends the first running of the OOPITA DOOPITA.

Oh! Blake. He turned off about 2 hours before me. He had other plans and the time was running short so he bailed as soon as we figured out where we were and he knew a route home.