OFM: Punish Him For Arrogance

During the drive down to Bloem I was telling my buddy that he should expect a top 10 finish (but stopped short of saying with all his training how couldn't he). At the same time he asked me where he thought my 1 session a week would put me - timewise. I arrogantly claimed I'd do a good ride, under 3 hours for 105km, 3:10 for 110km.

As it turned out, I suffered a flat at about 70km, and a lot else besides. I had a decent start, got over the 3 hard climbs at 30km okay. But after that my heart rate monitor was picking up and then losing the signal, with the result that there was a near constant annoying 'beeping' going on. The result was that I was distracted and irritated. There was also an odd TIK-TIK-TIKKING sound going on.

And then it happened at 70km. I didn't ride over a stone, I just felt my wheel suddenly went flat. perhaps the valve - which jammed and didn't allow me to pump the wheel harder than 80% - finally gave up and broke (I did squirt in some Wynn lubricant). I tried to seal the puncture with foamy stuff, but the jammed valve was still no good. I was out of the race, sorry. So I needed a drive back. I didn't feel incredibly depressed. Although I was riding okay, I started the day sore and exhausted in several respects, with sleep deprivation the main culprit undermining all the other energy streams.

I would have liked to have finished and seen what time I'd come up with. I did regret the fact that I was robbed of the opportunity to push those last, hard 40km, but there was also nothing more that I could have done.

On the upside, it was beautiful on the airport road, in the crisp early morning, seeing the vivid cyclopedes streaming along with a train-like SSSSSHHHHRRRRR.

Ja so if I am going to suffer a flat - that day - when things were looking pretty shabby overall, wasn't going to send me into terminal depression. On the other hand, I did feel my arrogance was punished. I SHOULD be training more, I should be training harder, and from now on, I will be. Of course, the fact that Alex was in the winning breakaway, and finished 5th, is also not an incidental inspiration.