Reflections from a Ditch

Things are finally getting better.  I am sitting in a ditch in the dark at the top of a mountain.  Finally started to feel like I want to be here again and stuffing my face with a muffin.  10 to 11 - I've had one hell of an afternoon.  
Bumped in to John again at another restaurant while I was waiting for my bike which was really nice. then I headed off to the bike shop to get my repaired bike and get back into this race!  Bad news - bad, bad news!!  They have been working on my brakes the whole time, but the problem was that they had not been set up correctly.  The pad was only rubbing on half the disc so half had worn away - the other half was rubbing on the other pad. So when i squeezed by brakes the two pads were simply touching against each other and nothing was actually happening - no braking that is.  The more I have been squeezing has cause the pistons to bend - so they couldn't move in and out.  They thought they had managed to sort this but when I tried the piston then got completely stuck and would not move in or out.  They were able to get the piston so that i tis now permanently stuck in - in other words I have no front brakes.  Unfortunately they had no spares in the shop or any other suggestions except "Good luck"  So after another 4 hours I am no better of.  So I headed off down the road knowing the situation is not idea - and I am destroyed headwise.  Up the road now and everything is annoying me about the bike. The gears continually make aso much noise and shift themselves every now and then. The bottom bracket is broken probably from me standing so much to try to alleviate the  gear problem. It makes a clickety click noise. My bike is quite musical in fact - but not in  a good way.  One hell of a struggle all round - thought about giving up, turning round, looking for a highway, stopping in Colorado.  Really struggling.  After 4 hours of this I finally feel a little better. I want to try not to stand so much (apart from damage to the bike its killing me) - try to carry on pedalling in a lower gear and pedal easier.  That grinding noise - feels like the gears are adding resistance to an already heavy bike - and thats whats really annoying me.  But thats how it is - cant be helped right now!

 So here I am in the middle of nowhere, no lights to be seen, pitch black - but at least quite open for a change rather than in trees.  But I know coming up soon I hike up a mountain and there is a very steep downhill the other side - I remember it from last year and was also warned about it by the guy in the bike shop. He told me I woul dhave to hike down it without any front brakes.  So - theres a challenge to look forward to!!