When you are out there cycling it is you, your bike and the road. It is a challenge as to how you will handle yourself in any given situation. You are alone. If you fall and get hurt, how do you handle that? If you have a mechanical...how will you cope with that? If the weather changes, are your prepared for that? If you have a steep up how do your propel yourself up that? No one will save you, rescue you and fix the problems. It is you, your bike and the road.
Cece has had this experience several times while on the bike. Once during a century she struggled to continue after her damaged shoulder gave out at mile 47 after she was hit and run. She pushed on.. pedal stroke after pedal stroke as the pain got worse. She realized, it was she and her bike and the road...just the three of them...stroke after stroke. What would she do? How was the pain speaking to her? How would she go on? In this situation, she was able to make it until mile 71 and then got off her bike sobbing because the shoulder had collapsed and she could hold on to the handle bars no longer.
A friend told Cece a story about a fall he had on the bike and how he could barely hold on after his wrists were injured and he still had 8 miles to go to get home. Somehow he was able to ride those 8 miles and get to his vehicle. How did he conquer this pain and move on? It was he,his bike and the road.
On a 96 degree day in Moab during the Moab century tour after almost being thrown off a cliff by a huge RV, Cece had to go on to finish her ride. It was so deadly hot and there was no water on the course. Her friend had collapsed and she was left to ride many miles by herself in the heat without any water. She knew that she had to go on. She had to finish. It was Cece , her bike and the road.
And so, as Cece watched Cadel Evans in the Tour power up those hills and set the pace and pull the peloton up the Alps, Cece had this feeling that for Cadel it was he, his bike and the road. He as making his destiny. He was determined that he would do it and he would succeed...and he was determined...she could see it on his face. This is what he had trained for...come for...worked for.. In the time trail chute, he was in a zen like state,. He was focused, he was still and he was breathing in a paced way. He
was in the zone. Cadel knew what he had to do and he was reviewing that in his mind.
As she watched him in the time trial, Cece was cheering him on...shouting at her computer,clapping her hands, shouting out affirmations, telling him to stick to his plan....to take risks, but not thoughtless ones...and as she watched him, it was another situation of man, the bike and the road, No one else could do it. It was succeed or fail right there...on two wheels spinning.
