I thought I lost her that day of the bike wreck. My beautiful Stella Cervelo took a brutal hit right along with me. While I cracked some bones and damaged my jaw, she fractured her top tube and mangled her aerobars. As luck would have it Cervelo was all out of 2011 frames in the right size but they had a new 2009 model in the same exact color as before. Yes, Stella came back…or so it seemed.
At first glance, it is almost if nothing happened to her as she sits pristinely in the garage, just waiting to ride again. The blue and silver frame is sparkling… though a little too clean. If you get real close to her you can see the marks of her crash. Fierce silver scars stretch across the vision bars where she dramatically scraped against the road after impact. Her shifters work fine but are slightly scuffed. Despite these nuances, against all odds and despite traumatic damage… she kicked herself back into the scene! She is reborn, yes, but she’s been shaped by her experience and she isn’t quite so serene anymore.
Stella means star in Latin and style in Greek. Last year, she was constantly playful and would quickly pose on cue for our race pictures. She was a true star amongst the other bikes on her transition rack with her adorable little 650 HED wheels. She places little value on that now. She is back and I can tell that the crash left her absolutely starving to race and crush those hills! We are appropriately renaming her Beatrix Stella Kiddo. She is a ruthless and formidable warrior hungering to go faster than ever before and take her vengeance out on the roads. Let’s just hope I can keep up with my “new” friend Beatrix SK once I am ready to ride.
