Very sad. I had a period of time where I wanted to rescue specific people I knew, and it took me a while to realize that at some level they needed to be rescued from themselves.
My mom was sort of kicked out of her house at age 10 or so. Her dad's new wife didn't want kids and told the two kids to leave, 10 and 6? So they packed up and left, traveling across Japan to their grandparent's house. Back in the day that was a 1-2 day journey. My mom made it fine in life, despite her stepmom, although I never felt any kinship with her stepmom.
Re: Rebecca Twigg, I read that she did a 160km training ride in some ridiculously tiny gear (42x18?) while at the OTC, before competing in the men's points race that evening. I want to say she won the race but I don't remember.
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"...during the Lance years, being fit became the No. 1 thing. Totally the only thing. It’s a big part of what we do, but fitness is not the only thing. There’s skills, there’s tactics … there’s all kinds of stuff..." Tim Johnson