you know it’s hot on the bike, when the brake hoods smolder in your hands and the tape goes soft, comes unstuck, and your bar wrap starts to unravel. your shoes are two sizes too small, your feet four sizes too big. the boiling water in your bottles is the best thing you’ve ever had. you dream of a cold can of coke glowing sweating red. but no one magically appears to hand you a coke so you just keep climbing, crawling along the pavement under the big yellow sun, so lizard hot.