Chapter 1: The Beginnings
II: Expansion of Interest, Pt.2

For the next couple of nights i'd go online and look up the results of the race and skim read the report of he action. Honestly most of it was like reading another language and I had less than no clue what half the words and expressions were trying to tell me. Pretty much all I picked out was that Lance finished 2nd and Kristin won the womens race.



I followed through some more links and began trying to get some more understanding. Cycling was an endurance sport like Cross Country was, Cross Country being my main sport for school. There was a lot of sublty and specific language to learn and it would take time to build up that understanding. To my mind the best way to learn would be to follow some racing as it was going on. Lance was going to be racing the Tour of Italy, and that looked like quite a big race, a perfect place to learn about the sport.

Chapter 1: The Beginnings
III: Bitten By The Bug, Pt.1

This was also the 100th anniversary of the race and I was immediately swept up the event. It was huge! Litteraly thousands upon thousands of people were at the roadsides to watch it. How could a sport this big be almost completely unknown to me. Lances team finished 3rd on Stage 1, which was a Team Time Trial. Basically the team would ride as fast as they could as a group, there was more to it than that but I was keping things simple as I started out. Ahead of him were two other American Teams.

Again how can we be this good and yet i'd never heard of the sport seriously? Then there was this guy called Tyler Farrar that came close to winning the next stages which were sprints. Levi Leipheimer, who was at the Gila, did well on a climbing stage. Then again with Chris Horner, also at the Gila, on the next day. It was 5 days and I was hooked!



I'd have to look up the results each morning because of the time difference, and each day i'd learna little more and a little more. Stages went by until number 12, which was an Individual Time Trial. Like the Team one but each rider was alone racing the clock. Levi finished 2nd, I was becoming quite the fan. Lance was doing ok but rarely seen. At first I was confused by this but by reading around I was getting an idea why that was.

Chapter 1: The Beginnings
III: Bitten By The Bug, Pt.2

I was reading up about this African guy called Froome on Stage 14 who popped up out of nowhere, he was the first african, or part african, rider i'd seen which was cool. Hopefully he'll have a good career. Lance finally had a good day on Stage 16 finishing 10th, but Levi dropped to 6th in the Overall Time competition. By this point I felt like I had a good handle on the basics. I was also reading about all this and got the idea it couldn't be too hard. They were just guys riding bikes but quickly.



I knew professional cross country guys were just people who ran fast, and I could run pretty fast in school competions. And cycling is easier than running! I gathered up some spare money I had saved and bagered my parents to help my by a new bike. They thought it was a great idea, get me out the house more and that it would help my running. So that weekend we went round a couple of shops and I was the proud owner of a second hand, 9 year old, Trek 2300! It cost me about $150 and I loved it because it was kinda like the one Lance used to win his second Tour.

Mresuperstar wrote:
Nice read and cool bike. Autumn has a very similar upbringing into cycling to what I had. However mine came a few years down the road. The era of Lance's comeback and Schleck vs. Contador.

Dippofix wrote:
Pretty sure this is set during Lance's comeback, possibly 2009?

Chapter 1: The Beginnings
IV: Infected, Pt.1

Things began gathering pace from there. I began by just cruising around town in the afternoons and evenings, not many miles and not at particular speed. I did have a bike before, as I mentioned, but didn't ride it much. So for the first few weeks I was just getting used to the new feel and style of a proper road bike. Each day i'd go a little further and a little fast and in no time I was starting to cover real distances.



Alongside this I kept up my study of the sport. Lance would generate a new headline almost daily as he built up towards the Tour de France, but i'd also track what Kristin was doing and expanding my knowledge of the Womens sport. At a national level it wasn't too far off the Men in terms of scale, most events had a Womens race alongside.

Chapter 1: The Beginnings
IV: Infected, Pt.2

Cross Country at school did that as well but unless you were winning us girls didn't get muc attention, whilst a Top10 for the boys would. Safe to say alongside that that none of my friends knew anything about cycling. It was a real isolated growing hobby I could have all to myself. Once I stopped using the bus in the morning and began riding to school it was noticed.

Cassie noticed it first just asking about why i'd missed the bus a few times that week. Simple answer in that I was cycling instead which wasn't hugely uncommon a practice. The uncommon thing was that I turned the route to school into a Time Trial. My house was right on the edge of town but even so that was only like two or three kilometers from school. So lengthened the route a bit up to 5k's, and then blast it each morning.




I would pretend I was riding the Giro and that I was racing Levi and Lance and Kristin. Each day I would push myself to go that bit quicker, searching for new lines to shave off another ten seconds. Unfortunately I was limited in speed by traffic and by the fact I had to then go to school, and this was High School so I couldn't be all sweaty right from the start of the day!

Seeking out new ways to ride, because I was now well and truly hooked, I came across the website of the local Bicycle Club. They did an open social ride every weekend and they said I could join them, but that I might find it a bit tough seeing as I was still just starting out and was quite young. No matter I turned up bright and early on the first Saturday in July to tackle my first real bike ride, perhaps coincidentaly the same day the Tour started.

Ian Butler wrote:
This is so familiar. 5km to the school and pretending you're riding the Giro or something while doing it.

Aah, the good old times