A bonanza for the JOH junkie

We finally caught up with all of our journal entries for the Push America web site. I chugged a soda so I had enough energy to post all of them to this site tonight so there is quite a bit to digest. I’ll try to get some more pictures up over the next couple of days.

It cooled down last night. We had a group of thunderstorms move through with the cold front and it was about 35 degrees cooler as a result which was VERY nice. It has pretty much been near 100 everyday and we have been doing 75-101 miles. Everyone has been doing fine with the heat. We have not had anyone get sick but it does make the rides seem very long. The wind in your face feels like it is coming out of a hair dryer and you feel like you might burst into flames at any moment. Is there any such thing as Spontaneous Cyclist Combustion?

I am finally getting pretty beat up. I crashed a few days ago in Missouri. The roads there are terrible and my front wheel was caught in a rut and threw me off the bike. I’ve got some nice road rash on my left arm and left leg along with a huge bruise. I hit my head pretty hard on the road which was protected by my helmet. It still hurt and left a mark but I would have had some pretty bad skid marks without it. My neck also hurts because it was stretched out when my head hit the ground landing on my left side.

To add to that, I crewed today so that David Shanklin, our crew chief, could do a ride along. Shank is a very athletic guy who road JOH 2 years ago. It has been driving him nuts watching everyone else cycle while he sits by the side of the road. He does lunges, push ups, and sit ups at the crew stops and often runs in the evening. It was good to see him on the bike today. I was doing ice and filling the coolers with water for the day last night. I forgot that the bike rack was on the back hatch of the van so when I pushed it shut, the bike rack came down and hit me in the face leaving a nice long gash in my forehead, a cut under my eye, and some big lumps from the impact. I almost knocked myself out. Combine that with the heat rash and I don’t look real pretty but some of the guys say that I am starting to look mean with the bald head and cuts.

Anyway, I’ll suck it up tomorrow and get back on the bike. The crew thing was fun but I’m not all that good at it. I had the headlights on because we got a little rain. I forgot to turn them off at my crew stop so after all of the cyclists passed me and I went to leave the car wouldn’t start. Joey had to come back to jump the van, meanwhile all of the guys were waiting red flagged at Mattliff’s van for 45 minutes. We were running behind schedule for our arrival and so we had to scramble to change stage up and all of the guys had to cycle pretty hard to make it. We made the arrival on time. I was really impressed that the cyclists just hunkered down and rode fast, the crew guys just rolled with it and scrambled to change our plans, and everything worked out. You can’t ask for more from a team.

Crewing is a very different experience from the cycling. I’ve always said “God bless ‘em cause I don’t ever want to do it”. My experience today reinforces that. The cyclists get all of the attention at the events and the crew is pretty much just the help. I don’t think that anyone means anything by it but that is just how it is. Crewing is pretty lonely because you are in the van by yourself driving, you stop and set everything up by yourself, and then you only get to spend a few minutes with the cyclists. As a cyclists you often get a little time off to relax. The crew always needs to drive someone to Walmart or the bike shop or they have to go scout. I really appreciate the guys who do the work in service of their brothers. It is a pretty selfless act. I will of course start giving them grief first thing in the morning. My favorite saying is “The crew is getting pretty slack, they need to tighten up.” I hope they know that is how I tell them that I love them.

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