The Sun Doesn't Warm

Photo by Richard Masoner at Cyclelicious

Yes, that's the Governator and Levi Leipheimer on the podium after the Prologue at the Amgen Tour of California. Levi took second behind the phenomenal time trialer Fabian Concellara of Swizterland and Saxo Bank. It was an exciting day of time trialing. Especially getting to watch Lance for the first time since I started following racing. He looked mighty good and a 10th place finish puts him near the top of performers after 3 years off and at 37. Not bad. Levi looked great and so did a number of other riders. Floyd, who I've always believed was innocent, was nice to see back, but didn't look ready.Anyway, really glad that Versus decided to televise every stage live and I'm looking forward to watching tonight. Nice to have the time difference working in this direction as opposed to watching the TDF at dawn.

Annie had an all-day conference today and I had to drop her off around 8 AM so I got out a bit later than I'd have liked. Not until around 9:15 or so. But the sun was shining brightly and the prospect of the ride was inviting. Except for the 30 degree temperature and the stiff wind coming of the river. I was laboring again for a while but slowly began to feel a difference over the past few days, a little intuition that the riding form was beginning to come back. So when I turned back down the west side and the wind miraculously wasn't blowing in both direction as usual, I really started to move and by the time I came around the museum I was determined to go around again despite the cold. so I did and felt stronger and stronger as I rode. Managed 23.5 miles, my longest and most satisfying ride of the new year. Felt more comfortable on the bike than I have in awhile.