Funnily enough the plant is exactly as I'd left it and there's plenty of work to keep me busy until we start planning the next shutdown.
Riding has also been going well on days when the temperature doesn't move beyond the mid-30's, otherwise being out on a long open road riding into what feels like an enormous hairdryer makes you seriously consider quitting bikes.
I’ve found a new love over the break too, Strava. Much has been written about the pros and cons of Strava (How Strava Is Changine the Way We Ride) but to be honest it has got to be the best thing in the world for me all the way out in the middle of nowhere. For those of you who don't know, Strava is a little iPhone app that you turn on when starting a ride and once you're done it logs your route via the phones' GPS, it then checks selected "segments" that you've gone over and compares the time it took you to ride that compared to previous rides. Not only that it compares your time to other users who have ridden too. So you can imagine that it can get a bit competitive as you try and get the "King Of the Mountain" for a segment.
So here's me thinking that I'd have to set-up my own sections but much to my surprise there are a number of "secret Strava-ers" in Pirie who've set almost 30 sections across town! What's more interesting is that whilst I thought I'd met every cyclist in town, most of the Stravaites are unknown to me and it's only when I'm rolling through a new section that I suddenly spot a dude rolling an S-Works with deep carbons, we usually give each other a "what-up/big-chin/I know you're trying to poach a KOM" then we continue with the task of poaching KOM's.
Whilst we are on the topic of Kings, Mountains and falling off them I might as well give my opinion on Lance. Not that anyone has asked for my opinion but as all my friends will tell you, this is when I'm more likely to give it. Here goes:
I noticed a few friends and others in the cycling world say that they haven't watched the Oprah interview because they couldn't care less about the confessions of a cheat. Whilst I can appreciate that I must admit that my interest in human behaviour, body language and verbal communication made it too good to miss. What I mean is, how can I guy that has not only instigated one of the sports world’s biggest doping scams and perpetuated a lie to the extent that he destroys anyone claiming the truth for almost 15 years, come "clean"?
The answer is he can, but that isn't going to happen in 2hrs on a couch with Oprah. Heaps of people say he wasn't contrite enough or he lied in certain sections (with regards to doping during his comeback) or he didn't answer questions at all (the Indiana Hospital confession). Again I'd say that he is probably just learning to let go of his control of the "truth" and also being a little cautious lest he wind up in jail. I think this is evident when he begins to talk about the tipping point being his son defending him at school, Lance is on the verge of tears... but composes himself and continues. Even the talk about his mother's state of mind still isn't enough to bring the waterworks! The same emotionless expression that he wore whilst tearing apart his opposition on a climb during the Tour appears again. This clearly is the sign of a guy who has not yet let go, still wrestling his demons and I believe even Oprah sees this at the end re-iterating "the truth shall set you free". Almost as if she knows there is a lot more there an encouraging him to keep going.
In short, this is a man that is unravelling himself from a 15 year lie that involved him bullying anyone who wouldn't tow the line, destroying anyone who attacked him and lying to his family. His actual confession to doping only took less than a minute but the rest, including apologies and finer details, will take a lot longer.
And with that said, none of it stops me riding my bike, so that's what I'm going to do. You should too.
No comments:
Post a Comment