couple more things before fish waffles

i forgot about the girl i raced with. she didn't know it was a race. she "on your left"ed me on sand hill, and she was going on to foothill/junipero serra, it turned out. so i didn't push for the stoplight, she did, and so she got a nice fat head start. she wore an "ironman" jersey, so i figured she must be a tough guy (oddly, she pedaled hard down sand hill, while i coasted at the same speed. some kinda physics lesson to be learned there, which i think has to do with my greater ass, i mean mass, giving me a lot more potential energy up top of the hill). the race ended in a draw as i was unable to catch her before the stoplight at the bottom of that footpath by stanford. curses! the race would have gone on past the light had it been green.

also, my butt hurt pretty much the whole way. too much riding or something. beh.

also, i really enjoyed arastradero, it was scenic and all, and had a really nice rest stop which i did not use. but, unfortunately, it smelled like horse pee pretty much the whole way.

speaking of horse pee, i saw two horses on horseshit bridge. Bowdler says horses aren't allowed there and I believe him. Fucking hippies! they waved me past, while i was on the bridge, like i was going to... uh... i have no idea what. yeah dudes, i'm coming past. thanks.

finally, watching all the people on the Tour, i Get It. It's a ride, not a race.

I didn't really get that before. What's the point of riding 100 miles if you're not going to be timed like in a marathon? The point is to get your friends and families out in the nice weather, on a scenic stretch of roads, on bicycles. It's to evangelize this great sport and bring more people to it. The point is that hopefully the people you manage to convince to ride (not race) with you will Get It too and start riding (or racing!) on their own.

That's what pissed me off so much about the honker on canada. The girls he honked at were clearly not "seasoned roadies", but amateurs out for the fun of the ride, probably not even regular canada riders. and because some douchebag with a horn doesn't like cyclists, he had to try to spoil the experience for them.

Looking at the Tour For Woodside, I basically did the half century route, I guess. The century would have killed me, with 8600 feet of climb. Reading the route blurbs, it's clear I need to start climbing King's Mountain Road, which I guess I already knew is a local roadie climb. It seems local bike events will feature it. I should learn to love it!