Tim Horton's and Neck pillows
A generous delivery from the Calgary Tourism office.Good morning! "Good" in the sense that at 5:58am when I woke up there was nary a cloud in the sky. Sure there was hardly any sun in the sky either here on the morning of the 3rd day at the Tour of Alberta, since it wasn't even six AM and we have a four hour drive to precede today's stage. But after yesterday's downright biblical rains, I'll take it.48F degrees for a high, winds gusting between 30-50mph, and quite literally racing through rivers flowing through the streets of the south eastern hamlet of Lethbridge, Alberta, yesterday was a day to remember. I had more clothing on than I've ever raced with. One jacket wasn't quite going to cut it, so I often for both my waterproof Polartec and the neoprene-like jacket; additionally I donned arm warmers, leg warmers, shoe covers, neoprene gloves, a thick thermal base layer, and a pair of hats. Yup, two. I only caught a slight chill and I'm hawking up some ferocious loogies early this morning complete with Albertan road muck. But that's bike racing in September! (...or January or April or July.)Yesterday's highlight arrived early when I rode the short distance from the bus to the stage for racer sign-in, whereupon I was already on the brink of shivering (I hadn't yet opted for both jackets and both caps) and a wonderful small bag was handed to me. A friendly face in the sopping wet crowd, amazingly smiling ear to ear, hollered "Hey Ted" and Kathryn -- a Canadian and maple lover herself -- handed me what turned out to be maple fudge. Immediately my spirits were lifted. Lax quick return trip to the bus for more clothing and a delivery of post race sweets to my suitcase, it was time to race bikes. I'll tell you what: a maple fudge-like carrot dangling in front of you as bait to lure you to the finish works every time! My roommate Cam Wurf and I made very short work of that in our shivering, muddy, spandex clad, glycogen deprived, post-race state.So here we are en route to stage 2. Only 3 hours and 45 minutes to go across the Tour of the Western Canadian Flatlands/Farmlands/Oilfields. My blurry eyes teammates are donning their early morning neck pillows and we've already driven by three Tim Horton's. That makes me want a Timmy Ho's maple donut.