We were heading out to the Pro start of the Iceman Cometh when we turned onto a dirt road to try and catch a glimpse of the last few riders leaving from the earlier starts. The sun was out but it was still cold enough to get you shivering after a few minutes out of the car. Where the trail crossed the dirt road we saw a minivan pulled over and a man in Lycra pulling out parts from the back. Bent over a frame, the man was fixing a cable that had pulled out and got caught in the cassette somehow. I’d never seen anything like it. Lucky, the sixty or so year old man had a spare wheel in the back and a wife willing to drive out to some lonely road and hand over a wheel.

We wished him good luck and a wave and he rolled off. The last man on the trail. He couldn’t have cared less.