Immediately after my return home this put a massive downer on my perception of the tour and myself, so I'm glad that I allowed myself the best part of a year to revisit and record my experience.
Forgetting events, or more accurately my response to them, and then being reminded through the unemotional camera lens has been helpful.
This time I'm doing so bearly a forthnight before the next season.
Post Rioja, I'd thought I managed to regain my health, but another setback that has kept me from my usual fitness regime until only the last couple of weeks.
I face the next ride with genuine trepidation, the Harrogate, Masham prologue I fear could well be my last.
A great deal is at stake, immediately, missing the Tour of Tuscany, otherwise a high point.
Next year, my 60th circumnavigation of the Sun shall pass unmarked and beyond that my life permanently diminished.
It hardly bears thinking about.
Bob Aug. 2024