Thursday, August 7, 2008

The Bounty of the Roadways

It is widely known that the "career" of the amateur cyclist is relatively thankless. Sure, bike racing is fun, but at the cat 1/2 level there is an awful lot of saddle time that is required for most folks to even get just the requisite fitness needed to simply finish a road race or crit at that level. There's no getting around it: if you want to be a P/1/2 mid-packer in our area, you're going to have to commit to some 20+ hr weeks of training from time to time. Even in the middle of the season, upwards of 15 hrs/ week is not uncommon.

So aside from at least average race results, what does all that chamois time get you? For most folks I'd say you can expect to spend some quality time with you imaginary friend(s), your ipod, and the elements. But if you're vigilant, the roadways can yeild a surprising bounty- poorly secured items that have fallen from (or been tossed from?) cars!

I've found lots of great stuff as I'm out slashing along the roadways preparing for cat. 2 glory. I've managed to accumulate a fair amount of top notch tools this way. The best of these includes:

A 10 mm Snap-On combination wrench.
A 12" Allen Tools crescent wrench.
A large pair of really decent channel-lock pliers.
A "Husky" folding box cutter knife.

These are all just from this year's training. I've found other stuff in the past, including a surprising amount of porn. I feel that porn should be left on the roadside for everyone to enjoy, but just because I didn't bring it home with me doesn't mean it didn't brighten my day.

So, keep your eyes open out there. You never know what kind of treasures you may come across!

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