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September 23, 2004
More biking
After snapping the front break cable on my old bike, I stopped riding this week, instead wearing in my orthotic inserts by running gently with Stu, and then with Stu and Lana.
But today I bought a new bike. Stu took me over to Decathlon to take delivery at lunch time. That I cannot really afford it was conveniently forgotten as soon as I got the pedals sorted out.
I didn't have long, so I rode out from La Tronche up the national road to the first intersection at St. Ismier, at the top of the long hill. Tearing down that hill was a gas, although I had to break for and route around a slow moving camper at one point.
A complete absence of mechanical concerns made the ride more fun than any I've had since using Rob's bike.
Rob said we ought to go out for a ride at some point. Then before I left work, Matt was explaining how to check that the seat's set up right, and said we should go out for a ride sometime at lunch. I asked him about Granier Pass. He kind of laughed and said he only knew it going down, but it had some great turns. He apparently barrels through those turns like a motorcycle racer, leaning precariously, his inside knee almost touching the ground. Matt says he comes back down from the Chartreuse into the valley over the Granier Pass sometimes.
I asked him if he'd learned how to fall. He said he hasn't fallen in a turn like that, but instead has always managed to pull out of it enough to straighten out and run into the bushes on the side of the road. He used to do a lot of mountain biking. One thing he learned was never to break in the turns, even if it meant going off into the brush.
His wife races, however, and she's fallen off more than once. Ice is the main culprit according to Matt.
Posted by Mark at September 23, 2004 09:30 PM