We put Lance to the test this weekend to see what kind of Tour Guide he'll be. And I'm happy to report he passed with flying colors!
Lance organized one last stateside ride for all the DC area riders headed to Europe with Idle Fast in July. Me, Barb and Paul are headed to the French Alps while Nigel is going to Italy to climb the Dolomites. Steve, a veteran of last year's trip to Italy, rounded out our peloton.
The pace down to Mason Neck Park was faster than our trio typically goes, mostly because Nigel seemed happy to pull, setting a blistering pace. It was exhilarating!
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| Matching kits make you faster! |
The return trip was exciting, too, but in a completely different way. As we were heading back out of the park, the binder bolt on my seat post snapped! That's right, the bolt that holds the seat at the right height snapped in half. That's when Lance's experience at emergency roadside repairs came to the rescue. Within seconds, he had removed a bottle cage bolt (conveniently the same size) to replace the broken binder bolt. We were back on the road in less that 10 minutes, good as new.
The final test of the day came when we got home. We had the box up our bikes. Lance came over to give us a hand and in less that 30 minutes had our three bikes disassembled, wrapped up and into their respective boxes. I'd probably still be working on the first bike!
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| Five bagged "kits" added padding to the box |
SInce a broken seat post bolt is about as unusual a mishap as you could have on the road, I'm confident we'll be in good hands in France.
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| The next time we see our bikes will be in France! |
Don't forget the cyclist who miraculously showed up when Lance couldn't get the bolt out -- he hollered "You guys need anything?" and Lance said "YES!" and the guy happened to have a pair of needle nose pliers in his giant bag (alongside the pancake that fell out as he was getting the pliers out). See -- miracles to happen!
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