You're riding in a race or event, or with your club or a friend or two. The hill climb feels more arduous than usual, the wind stiffer than what the weather forecasters promised or that straightaway longer than you remember from the last time you rode it. You take a bite of your energy bar, gulp down some water (or Gatorade). They don't help. Nothing does. You feel that instead of the scenery, the weather or anything else about the ride itself, everyone is noticing that you're struggling to keep up.
Someone asks, "Are you OK?" Or maybe they don't have to ask. Their gaze, their facial expression tells you they know. Do you deny that anything is wrong? Or do you say, "I didn't sleep last night," "I'm not feeling quite right" or offer some other excuse that implies you're normally a stronger, faster rider than the one they're seeing.
Perhaps you blame the bike.
That's what Colombian Fernando Gaviria did after finishing second in a high-RPM sprint in the fifth stage of the Giro d'Italia.
He bounced his front wheel as he crossed the finish line. Then he got off the bike and pounded the saddle with his fist. He unleashed an exclamation they probably didn't teach you in Italian 101: "Che bici di merda!" Translation: What a shitty bike!
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| Gaviria and Arnaud Demare at the end of the sprint. (Image from Sprint Cycling Agency) |
He couldn't get into specifics about the problem, he said, because he'd "get told off." But a video suggested a shifting problem: As he spun his pedals faster and faster, his chain seemed stuck on the 14-tooth cog. For a sprint finish, he would have wanted to change to a higher gear.
Perhaps his complaint is legitimate. But I must admit that it would be funny to see an overweight chain-smoking desk jockey blame his $12,000 rig when he couldn't get up a bridge ramp without seeing stars.
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