Free Spokes by PD Singer Page B

bask in Luca's assessment.
    "Getting better power now! Not mashing!" came from behind, just before the turnoff to Lefthand Canyon Drive.
    "Good!"
    Oh yeah. Christopher only had to think about his pedaling every two minutes now, instead of every twelve seconds, and his gear choices had gone another
    notch higher. Maybe they should turn left--he wouldn't mind doing the Ward run again. He stuck his arm out to signal.
    "Straight to Lyons, Christopher!"
    "But I'm feeling pretty good!"
    "Looking good, too, but I want to stop and see something by town."
    Poor guy; he probably never got to stop and look at anything. Christopher dropped his arm. "Okay!"
    Luca buzzed around him to take the brunt of the wind. Christopher didn't think he was quite through leading, but time trials meant the riders
    raced alone against the clock, and if they caught up with another rider, or worse, were overtaken, they still couldn't draft. Luca would want the
    front for endurance training.
    They passed the turn, crested a slight rise, and dropped into the gentle valley, fast enough that Christopher hoped not to encounter any loose rocks.
    Thirty-nine miles an hour maximum, declared the bicycling computer when Christopher dared to look. They had a gentle uphill again, and the brush at the
    side of the road was no longer rushing by in a blur. "Whoot!"
    The scenery was truly fine along this stretch of road--Luca all bent over his handlebars, his ass flexing just out of touching range. And the red
    rock among the juniper and sage looked nice too.
    Just when Christopher was ready for a water break, Luca pulled into the parking lot for a fieldstone quarry, one of several they'd passed. Their
    tires crunched against the broken stone paving the lot. Large sheets of red and buff sandstone stood propped against pallets of thin-cut slabs, the dark
    shapes of primeval creatures writhing in fossilized seabeds.
    Christopher tilted his head back to squirt water down his throat, one eye on the skeletal figures, the other on Luca. He, too, slaked his thirst, but no
    sooner had he racked his bottle than he knelt beside a slab where dozens of ancient fishes had come to rest. Luca ran his fingertips over the skeletons,
    tracing ribs and backbones.
    "Strange, to dry the ocean and lift it so near the sky." He grinned up at Christopher, the strength of his wonder enough to pull
    Christopher down to his haunches to admire the school of fish. "Like the Alps, with many clams on the peaks."
    "This one's different." Christopher picked out the form of something much toothier on the same slab. "A
    predator."
    "Chasing dinner into the sand." Luca spun stories for each of the slabs, though his view of the life and death of some lacy fan-thing
    was probably more exciting than the creature had been aware of at the time.
    Rocking to keep his balance, Christopher was glad of the break. His legs weren't quite as jelly-like as the invertebrate on the slab Luca admired
    next, but closer than he wanted to admit. He remained standing to check out the rest.
    "So much of this rock all over town." Luca straightened in a hurry when the high-pitched scream of a stone saw destroyed the quiet. He
    waited for a break in the noise, which only lasted a few seconds. "University buildings, houses. I like it. Maybe get a fossil for
    house." The saw shrieked again.
    "Let's go!" Christopher thought every filling in his teeth would vibrate out from the sound. And he was ready to go again,
    making it to Lyons where they refilled their water bottles at a convenience store and turned around.
    He said nothing when they came to the turnoff that would take them up Lee Hill--even the gentle rolls of their current path were just about
    enough. Yesterday had cost him more than he thought. He did give the road a baleful look--beyond Lee Hill lay the steepness of the Jamestown
    route, or worse, the near vertical above Jamestown, and if he survived that to reach the Peak to Peak Highway he would end up in Ward again, where