just how good the pros are
Topic: dance
Okay, let's do a little comparison of my efforts and the pros. Here's a description of today's stage of the Vuelta a Espa?a from VeloNews.

Racing has been underway for about two hours on this, the toughest stage in this year's Vuelta. The 207 kilometers of today's route covers a wide range of terrain, but really the most decisive of it will be the six rated climbs that hit riders from the start. The day started with the Category 3 climb to Minide. At km50, the route moves up the 16km of Category 1 roads up the Puerto de Connio and that's followed almost immediatly by the Cat. 1 Puerto de Ranadoiro (8km) At km 102 the Puerto de Cerredo (Cat. 3) warms the riders up for the 10km hor categorie Alto the San Lorenzo (10km - at 9 percent). Of course, the surviivors then get to fight it out on the Cat. 1 Alto de la Cobertoria (9km - 8.5 percent). So, what do you have planned for your day?

207 kilometers translates to 128.62 miles. Vinokourov won the stage in 5:50:43, close enough to 6 hours for my purposes. Vino rides 28 more miles in the same time...with six categorized climbs. If the stage had been as flat as the course I rode, he would have ridden closer to 180 miles. It took me 15 hours to ride a 200-mile flat course. Even just taking on-bike time, it took me almost 13 hours. The pros do it in half the time. Yesterday, Vino won a 113-mile flat stage in four hours, averaging 28mph. I can hold 28mph for, oh, thirty seconds, longer if I'm drafting...but not much.

I'm not trying to minimize my own accomplishments. I'm proud of them. I still pedalled through the miles myself. I'm not an armchair quarterback. But it's good and necessary to recognize what others are doing, whether I'll ever match that or not. Credit where credit is due.