Day 3. Unquestionably the toughest yet.

I want to talk today. Yes I have some absolutely fantastic pictures, but today was a tough day. They say that, at some point during this ride, you have a moment where change happens. That was today.

I want to tell you what happened today first, and then explain what changed inside of me.

The morning was good as Laura shared. Good breakfast, ready to go. Almost a new routine starting. But between the first and second rest stops, I had a mechanical failure on my bike. My front derailleur stopped responding. For those of you who don’t know all about bikes, think of it as losing half of your gears in a car. The low gears, that you use to climb hills. Pulled into the second rest stop, saw the mechanic, and he wasn’t able to fix it. Today was the day with the most climbing. Over 3,000’. And almost 80 miles. And I lost the ability to access the gears that make those hills achievable. I was down from 24 speeds to 12.

What else happened? I dropped my chain right when we left Albany. Not hugely common, but not unheard of. It did, however, get stuck in a wickedly bad place. And it managed to tweak my rear derailleur out of alignment causing a handful of more gears to be out of my access.

And then, with 8 miles to go, a car made an unexpected turn across my path. And we collided. And I went down. Bike was mostly OK. Some scrapes. Some other issues.

So…with just two miles left, I was on a nice bike path. Well paved, etc. There was a pedestrian walking and I called out “passing on your left.” Twice. The first time I don’t think he heard me. The second time, I think he only heard “left” because he stepped left. And I went off the path to avoid him. I went down again. At least this time it was in the grass.

So why am I telling you my day? Well…today I had a moment, a few times. I thought about calling for a ride back to camp during more than a few of the hills. I almost got off the bike and walked up them. But I didn’t. If I was home I probably would have. But I thought about why I’m here. And the stories I’m able to share from some of you. And I ground on.

Both times when I fell, there was an Empire State Ride staff member in the area and they were amazingly attentive. They offered me a cold drink, a few minutes in their van, and rides back to camp, but I’ll be damned if I wasn’t going to come here under my own power.

And when my chain fell, someone from a group that passed me noticed I wasn’t behind them. She came back and we both fought to get it free, with her getting as greasy as I was.

I was checked by the medics for good measure, and I’m expected to be bruised and sore, with some road rash to match. I wanted to give up today, a few times. I almost shed tears today from frustration and stress, but I held them in.

The mechanics here pronounced my front derailleur DOA, with the rest of my bike safe. So I had the decision about what to do…and dammit I’m finishing this ride, even with half of my gears missing. Today was unquestionably the worst cycling day I have ever had. If it was easy, I wouldn’t be here.

No pictures tonight.

You can see the ride today on Strava below
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/7199808642.

Or it’s on relive, below. This has a few pictures too.
https://www.relive.cc/view/v36AgrgVzGv