While I am not generally one to worship pro athletes or other celebrities, I must admit that pro cyclists are a little bit of an exception. They generally work in such anonymity, the pay isn't all that great, they are not monstrous or imposing people.... yet what they do totally amazes me. So when I heard that Horner, King and Busche were going to be at the Harpeth River Ride (50+ gathering last week), I was a little excited. In the throng of hundreds of other cyclists there was no way to really meet them of course, but I took these shots of the stars leading out the ride.
Then, off I went to work on my metric century... perhaps I would see them again on the course somewhere- but I wasn't counting on it. About ten miles out I did see the entire group of pros stopped with a Nissan service truck nearby, so I figured they had a mechanical and there was no need to stop and offer my help
.
To make a long story short, a couple miles later they came cruising by and I could not help myself, I jumped on at a respectful distance and rode in their draft at about 26 mph for a minute or two before thinking the better of it. (Still at least 45 miles left in my ride... don't be stupid!) I'm confessing, it was a little bit of a thrill and I enjoyed it immensely.
The very best part of this event is missing from the video because I lost track of whether the camera was on or off. I wish GoPro would put an indicator light on their cameras!
One of the cool parts of cycling may be that we are actually closer to our professional counterparts than most other sports.