Presenting The Tour of America.

Seriously, this is a joke, right?

Update: It is not a joke in the sense of an elaborate prank, only in the sense of “there is absolutely no chance these idiots — who know nothing about cycling — could pull this off.”

August was not especially kind to me — on the bike anyway. I spent a week at the end of July not riding because I was injured, a week in Ireland eating and drinking lots but not riding at all, and a week after Ireland in bed, sick. So that works out to about three-and-a-half of the last five weeks not riding. Not a good way to come into cyclocross season (which, for me, starts Sunday) fit, but, hopefully, being rested now will count for something late in the season. Last year I was burnt out by Nationals, and wanted only for the season to end so I could hang up the bike and eat a bunch of Christmas cookies. Since we’re going to have to go all the way to Kansas if we’re doing Nationals this year, I’d like to be excited about racing and, you know, ride kind of fast.

The one race I did in August, the 1/2/3 race at the Gate City Cyclone Crit in Nashua, almost went really well. Certainly, it was my best performance in a 1/2/3 race ever, until, with about 5 minutes to go in the race, I went into major tachycardia for some reason. I felt a little funny, looked at my heart rate monitor, and saw the number 275. Not Normal. I tried for a lap to get things under control, but I couldn’t, so I pulled out. Turns out that dehydration probably was to blame — it was a hot day, and I lost a mostly-full bottle early in the race and was left with only a mostly empty bottle — and there’s no indication that there’s anything meaningfully wrong. But it cost me a solid finish in a competitive field, which bummed me out.

The good news was that we went to Ireland; mostly for a conference, but we still had plenty of time to explore Dublin and the surrounding countryside. I’ll write more about the trip later, but if you can’t wait to hear about it, you can take a look at all of our photos from the trip. Check back sometime soon for the complete story.

I will share this one photo now, though, which was definitely (maybe embarrassingly) a highlight of the trip.