Smackdown lately. A bit of both. Crazy in the A ride with just flat out stupid and dangerous riding (but so far no one has been run over fortunately). Last week there was a crash that took out a big gun, hit a corner and the guy in front didn't know there was a pothole at the apex and bonked it and lost his front wheel and went down and then took out the rider behind him. Accident and not sketchy other than not seeing the pothole in the turn. That was the A group. This week it was the B group's turn, another rider went down heading down rocky hill. that final right hander before the last left and the run out at the bottom, he hit a rock, the ONLY rock in the road in the turn, literally, one sharp bit of gravel and he hit it with the edge of his tire and put a 2cm gash in the front tire and well... at 35-40mph losing your front wheel is usually no good.
I only rolled up on it and fuck, feared the worst. I rolled up on it because I got DROPPED hard, got a little bit of a gap on Jacob and was just off the wheels when they turned up Pine and on the Paramount, and given I had been sick and in bed for days straight last week, I didn't have it to close the gap and hang out.
So I rode mostly alone. Slowly, but trying to keep some steady tempo going. I'm okay with getting dropped, I'm still pedaling hard, I'm still out there, I'm old and life's been kind of messing with me, either sleep or food timing (yesterday's pre-smackdown lunch was delayed by almost 2 hours, not idea) or just life stress.
Like stressing about the arrival of the new Chainrings. Speaking of new rings, if I want to get the black blue back together I need to order a new chainring for it. I'd thought about maybe decommissioning it but I think it makes more sense to decommission the Paramount and get it in the hands of someone who can bring it back to life (Chapman ideally). Looks like I'll race it for one more TT, this time with metrics (so i know how slow I'm going instead of guessing).
And honestly? I'm working on trying not to be terrified about going to France. It should be fine. Should be a nice vacation and should be exciting and cool and I'll have the new camera with me. I did figure out how to transfer photos to the phone so I can share easily while there or anywhere w/o a computer. No I don't think i'm bringing one with me. And I'm kind of thinking no film camera although that seems almost like a bad idea. Half thinking about taking the Leica CL. I did finally finish the roll in there today so I have some film to develop tonight or friday night. And I have those rolls of Rollei to try next. We'll see how these look in the leica, might just go back to the Spotmatic. Although carrying around TWO heavy ass SLRs isn't maybe the best idea, esp w/o a dedicated pack. Might need to work on the latter. Or at least make a few custom inserts or foam shells. Add it to the list.
I've got the tray of slides. Want to scan them in. Personality challenges limit my access to the scanner I had been using. And that fucking sucks. Maybe I'll make it over to the media lab and use the big scanner there and try and figure out how to use a Mac again. Ugh. macs. Took a peek at some printers, thinking about maybe printing some of these photos off the new monster camera, but it'll take a lot of prints done by John before i can begin to come close to the cost and even then more cost when the ink runs out and having a computer with enough juice to run and managed the image files. I really need to set up an office/studio at home. And yeah, where? I dunno. somewhere. This camera might have an expensive cascade... but to be honest, it is kind of amazing i've made it this long without having a computer at home. But then I get enough screen time at work so not the worst.
Crazy, i'm getting on a plane to Paris soon. Totally different level of planning than 24HOGG. That race is more work but, it is a known thing. Big difference for me.
Well lets see what happens tomorrow. See if i can at least be consistent with the TT time, and set a more solid baseline before trying it on the new bike.
Amor Fati Motherfuckers
heddwch
G
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