Aug 14, 2021

MENTALLY SENSITIVE

ABOUT A YEAR AGO I RAN INTO MY FRIEND JOHNNY O'MARA ON AN MTB RIDE. (O'Show, as he's known, is a former World Champ MX racer and multitime MTB National Champ.) He was training with a young kid, 17ish, Jet Lawrence. Fast forward to today, searching for La Vuelta, I landed on a motocross race...

... and there's Johnny coaching the same kid to a huge pro victory.

Jet looked incredibly at ease and relaxed...

... which is exactly what we look for in a coach, someone to help get our heads straight.

I finally found La Vuelta, and the last man off in the TT is last year's winner Primoz Roglic. Sure, he just won a gold medal in the Olympic TT but this course was super technical. I wondered if his string of nasty crashes at The Tour would factor...

... you'd never know by the way he attacked each corner.

Spoiler alert: he destroyed his competition and won the stage.

Later I pulled up the Leadville100 results. I was anxious to see how my pals fared. It is so hard to race at 10,000'...

... they all ripped it up.

Earlier in the day, I'd been riding the ridge opposite one of our local trails. It's a steep single track that can easily get out of hand if you're not paying attention...

... appropriately named Mentally Sensitive.

You can't really tell how steep it is from this angle, but I think that's the thing about watching someone winning and ripping...

... it's hard to appreciate the mental battle they conquered long before the victory.