Andy Schleck Road Ride: From the Back of the Peloton
Cyclists in Steamboat Springs were treated to a road ride on our home turf this morning with second place Tour de France winner Andy Schleck. And it ruled. I must confess that I had to google “Andy Schleck” when I found out he was in town to find out what all this excitement was about, I felt better when the first few people I told about this ride were like, “who?” I quickly turned into a groupie when I discovered that this guy is legit in the cycling world and decided that I had to see what a “Le Tour” cyclist looks like in real life. And I’ll tell you, he doesn’t have much body hair.
Andy is thin, lean, young, cute, and hairless. And it’s a killer combo. He’s fast. I only caught glimpses of this kid all morning, he was swarmed by real faster cyclists than I, needless to say I was near the back of our rocky mountain peloton. But a peloton it was and it was quite an experience to ride bikes with nearly 200 people down a 2 lane road with normal Monday morning traffic (thank you drivers for not plowing 200 cyclists down).
I was nervous to ride in such a big group. We’ve all seen those nasty spills on TV, the kind where spandex literally burns into skin and skin literally burns into road. And my wheels tend to wobble, especially on some of the brutal chip and seal we encountered. I had horrific images in my head of tomorrow’s Steamboat Today headline “Andy Schleck road ride ends in a blood bath when some girl in a pink jersey causes major pile up.” So I hung back with a group of friends who had some of the same ridiculous fears.
The peloton cruised along and I quickly felt the energy of the group, the sun poked out behind thick morning clouds, and I had a fantastic time chasing this skinny kid in a blue helmet at the head of the pack up and down hills, through Steamboat ranch land, and up to the little red school house where he departed the group to head out on a “real ride.”
I would definitely call myself a recreational cyclist, I do not set my alarm for 2:00am so that I can watch the start of each day on the Tour with a live feed from France, I don’t regularly eat breakfast in a chamois, shave my legs as a strategy or refer to my bike seat as a “saddle”. It’s a great sport that offers an excellent TO READ MORE CLICK HERE….. and you should cause this is such a great post!
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