Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Faster

Day 61 - Aug 3, 6:05pm
70 miles. Eureka, NV to Austin, NV

The Regatta entered its "fastest" stage today beginning with a baton, or tire pump, relay race to lunch. The standard strategy for the teams was to space out riders a few miles apart. But then again, these were the teams that lost. The key was to keep the baton moving at all times and to pass it at full speed between riders. The Black Pearl saw a valiant extraordinary, actually unbelievable effort from Hillary and Dennis who rode the baton 40 miles from the host to lunch. They would pass it off for a mile to our teammates and then take it back and sprint ahead since they're the fastest riders. The riding was really great this morning and it was actually super exhilirating to be sprinting frantically with Dennis and Hillary next to me trying to make ground. I went for a few miles with them but they were just jetting at 20+ for literally all 40 miles which was insane. Even more insane was that Sean singlehandedly carried his baton from the host, caught all the way up to Hill and Dennis, and was in a dead heat with them for 30 miles before pulling ahead in the end. The kid is a machine plain and simple. As he passed me after i had slowed down, i sprinted full out to try and get behind him and catch his draft but couldn't even get near him even though he had already been sprinting for 10 minutes and i had been resting. It was crazy.

Second Place was not too bad especially since i was able to complete my secret challenge at lunch which was to get as many people as possible to say "That's the fastest tent I've ever seen" Sounds difficult i know. But victory was all the sweeter when i led the entire group in a sing a long under the guise of a "group activity" only to fit that line into the lyrics. The result was a ton of confused stares while Paige and Ryan were cracking up. Perhaps i shouldn't feel so happy at having manipulated 30 people so easily like that.

The Regatta continued with the fastest climb and fastest descent events. Because i value my knees, i definitely did not volunteer for those. I was proud though to have caught up with a group of decent riders halfway up the mountain who had left 10 minutes before me at lunch, which in biking time is an eternity. It was 6 miles at 6% which is so damn long. Every bend just brought more uphill into visibility. At the top we cheered the racers as they finished and especially Carlos who just beasted everyone with an astounding 30 minute time. Dennis and Max were close behind to score a second and third place victory for the black pearl. Kelly closed the group but still got the celebratory water dumping as you can clearly see.

Just as we entered the obligatory sweet descent, the mountains decided to cut it short with guess what, yet another summit. It really did suck but whatever. The downhill was really curvy so the fastest descent race was postponed indefinitely. It occured to me today how this last stretch in Nevada is really pushing us to our limits unlike every other part of the country. The 4 Hs to beware of in cycling are Heat, Hills, Headwind, and Hiney. This has been the only part of the country where all four are being ruthlessly pitched against us at once. It's pretty cool to think of it as a culmination and our "final test" before the prize so to speak. It only adds to our feeling of indomitability.

In a group like this something inevitable is the consentual pairing up of certain individuals. Given that I'm talking about this in a public blog that my parents read you can guess that I am not included in this category. I think its really cool and nice in a way that people are happy together and enjoying each other's company. And i think that the personalities all end up matching very well. However there is still a part of me that can't help but feel that it detracts from the overall group dynamic. As in sometimes i feel its more like several groups of two rather than one big group of 32 and that bothers me i guess. But then again so says the loner. I could talk for a long time about this topic but I'm sure that if i were in a different position in regards to this i would also hold a different opinion. And that for me is actually the most interesting point I've taken away from it. I think the way your standing affects your outlook on a situation is extremely interesting if not the permanent source of worldwide political conflict. Its interesting to think then how much free will we really do have over our opinions.

Off to discuss our grant allocations with the group.

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