How long has it been since Kevin races at Heller Velodrome? A very long time. And back then, that girl ahead of him was like 10 when Kevin was 13 and she knew enough to get behind the big kids wheel.
Now it’s like 15 years later and she’s not 10 anymore. She was out riding with her Dad, Rob Jensen, who was one of the guys who ran the kids track program way back when. We never would have seen them if not for Kevin’s still-messed-up-knee that caused us to abandon a ride into the real hills and stick to the foothills. Not a lot of fun for me but I did get some work in, pulling into the wind for 20+ miles.
Good thing the Tour de France has been postponed because no way could Kevin do a big climb right now.
The guy ahead? Never caught him. He wasn’t trying to stay ahead of us; Kevin just couldn’t put anything into the pedals today.
I was feeling surprisingly good, after a night of not-enough sleep. Kevin, not so much. And we had witnesses, which makes being off your game not much fun.
Hitting the base of Kings, I was riding with George & Karen. Actually I wasn’t that much aware of anyone around me but George; I was in the zone. George was moving around a bit, sometimes in front of me, sometimes to the side, sometimes behind as I found a pace I was comfortable with and played it out. Karen was just behind, probably trying to average out the changes in speed.
Somewhere behind was Kevin and Kevin. When I’m in the zone, I’m looking ahead, not behind. But finally, as we neared the park entrance, there’s a section where you can see 30 or so seconds behind, and Kevin (pilot) was just coming into view but no sign of younger Kevin. I backed off at the park, waited for pilot and asked if he’d seen Kevin, but no, he didn’t know where he’d lost him.
So I put any ideas of a fast time up Kings to rest and circled back to find him. After all he could have had a seizure. Nope. He was just riding really slow, nursing a sore knee. How slow? So slow that, when we almost caught up to another rider, the guy very gradually and unintentionally rode away from us. Hate that. 40 minutes up Kings. I texted Kevin (pilot) not to wait for us at the top.
