When I picked up my 2012 Reality Bikes kit a while back it included two jerseys: a standard short-sleeve jersey and a foreign-looking long-sleeve jersey. The long-sleever took me a off guard when I saw it because it wasn't fleece-lined or special in any way except for the length of the sleeves.
"When am I ever going to wear this?"
Since then, it has been slightly cool and/or wet and rainy almost every day and I've worn it on no fewer than 4 of the 5 rides I've done since picking it up. I don't know who decided to take a regular jersey and give it long sleeves but that guy deserves a Heineken Light, as both are "occasionally perfect". Today was one of those occasions.
I tried to get out about an hour before the group ride and do my little Melody Mizer loop but I just happened to notice a mean cut in my rear tire. I'd flatted a month ago and booted it but the tube was now, finally pushing though the boot. Yay. I ended up just going to the shop and getting it fixed. Turned out I had another cut in it too that wasn't as bad. With the wheel off, I also discovered that my brake pads were worn down to nothing, and upon letting a little of the cable out to replace the pads, realized that the part that had previously been exposed was dragging really bad and needed to be replaced. Woohoo!
I'm a better mechanic than most riders but still infinitely slower and clumsier than the most junior actual mechanic and it was fortunate that the guys at the shop took over. I managed to join the ride as it was leaving. On my own I'd have missed it entirely.
It's been raining all week. Yesterday I got caught out in it for about an hour. Today the roads were just wet. No water was actually falling from the sky when we rode out but still, the threat kept most everybody home and we combined the B1 and B2 groups. I think B1 had over 60 riders last week. Today the combined group might have had 25.
On the rollout I met a guy named Brian LaFleur who just moved up here. He's only been riding for about 6 months but he hung with us easily. Nice guy.
Near the end I met Isaac Brown. We're on the mountain bike team together. It's funny. We all sort of know each other or at least sort of know of each other but the team is new and we haven't all gotten together in one place yet.
I had fun today. I'm starting to get comfortable digging in again. I even pinned it for as long as I could at the end, leading out a group for the final sprint, felt good the whole time and recovered within a minute. It's all coming back again. I've got a race in a few weeks. I might even be in half-decent shape for it.
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