So I played hooky from work today to go for a 100k organized ride in Cleburne, but in the end wound up sleeping a few extra hours and then loading up my lovely "new" Colnago and driving to Dallas to ride White Rock Lake...which is always fun. It is mostly flat, very little traffic, people sell gatorade and powerade in little lemonade stands along the way, and lots of cyclists in all different shapes and sizes. I rode 4 loops around (about 36 miles, plus the four or so to and from my car...about 40 miles) and was enjoying the flat, the tailwind (mostly) and the people.

I got back to the car, changed my clothes, loaded the bike on my fork mount roof rack, and left. 200 ft. out of the lot there was a thud, and yes, I had not tightened the fork thingie enough and the damn thing had tipped over...and BENT THE DROPOUT OF MY CARBON FORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I JUST built this THING up!!!!! I about drove my key into my heart.

So I drove over to the very busy bike shop near the lake. A cycling pair of ladies (and I say ladies, because they were clutching their coach wallets, round Paris Hilton glasses pushed up on their heads, unsweaty and clean with a pretty new Giant) were complaining to the mechanic about the "noise" the new triple on the new bike was making. The mechanic was trying to explain about cross chaining and trimming...and I stomp in, hair gone wild, in my sweaty Hammer nutrition t-shirt over my sweaty bike shorts, dirty glasses hanging off my nose, Colnago slung over my shoulder. Everyone in there looks up at me and I put the non-Colnago clutching hand on my hip and say, "Yeah, I'm a dumba$$." The "ladies" looked offended and one said to the mechanic, "well, just make that noise stop, I'm going to go look around." In passing I got *THAT* look from them, not about my less than ladylike behavior, it was the head to toe up down examination of me. I tried not to show my fangs at them and handed over the wilted Colnago to the bike guy, who shakes his head at me and puts it on the stand, where he examined it for a moment before proclaiming, "Yeah, your fork is toast." To which I said, "Fu*k"...I am sure those ladies heard me. I don't care. My tolerance for lipstick wearing rude women was not at its highest. I guess saying Fu*k in a public place was hardly polite, but whatever.

So now I am just seething, this derails (so to speak) my current training program (I will have to fill the gaps with running (ugh), mountain biking, and lifiting) and I have no clue how much a Colnago carbon fork is going to cost me to replace, IF I can find one....the newer ones are 1 1/8 and I need a 1 steerer tube....AGH....and no one to blame but myself. I CAN'T BELIEVE I DID THAT!!!!

Sorry for the rant.