So as part of my genuis training plan I thought I'd hit a ride up with a pro rider who shall remain nameless. 2 hours rolling, and of course I knew rolling for them was light speed for me - but that was ok. If only it was that simple.
I've got the Black Bomber here, but as its in race trim its got a disc on the back complete with 11/21 cassette. This means I look like an even bigger penis than normal cycling around Arizona. So rocking up today I should've known things were going to take a turn for the worst when 'he who shall not be named' suggested I swap the disc for one of his zipp 404's with a 12/25 cassette (one of those fancy SRAM ones which is one solid peice of metal and weighs the same as a stamp but costs a gazzilion $$).
With that done - we set off and I wouldn't see anything short of 25mph until a set of traffic lights which gave me just enough time to gather myself and not throw up before setting off again like a standing start in a velodrome. Eventually we turned onto a road and in the distance I could see it ran straight up a mountain, hoping we weren't going up it - we did. The problem with Arizona is its either rolling, or vertical. You either cycle on rolling desert floor or go up a mountain. No in-between.
However, no sooner had we tackled this ascent which had a horrific technical descent, we hit another climb. It was on this climb I nearly shat my lungs out of my eyes, showing a massive 2mph on the speedo. You know its steep when you can reach out in front of you and touch the road. Getting to the top it was then down the other side, and whilst 'he who shall not be named' bombed down like Cancellara on the tour, I tried to wear my brake pads down to the metal. As we hit the bottom, I remarked I should've got a picture at the top as it was a great veiw of Phoenix. The comment back was 'you can take pictures when we go up again..', thinking that was quite funny - my jaw nearly ended up with a tyre burn as it dropped when I realised we were in fact going to tackle it again.
We did stop at the top so I could take some pics, which was good as I was going to fall over anyway. Turns out this is 'he who shall not be named' sprint repeat hill. Not only had he trained in the gym this morning he had a crit race tonight We did the 30 mile ride with an average of 18mph, which considering the 3 ascents at 0.0001mph, the descents at 0.0002mph and the photo session at the top of the hill shows how fast I was dragged around.
I'm sure I'll garner little sympathy from any of you as I'm out here in 20 degree heat and its -20 there. But my top tip is DO NOT train with a pro road rider, especially one who has trained with Lance recently....