Before last night's group ride started, I was able to get out for about 30 minutes of warmup hoping to be ready for the suffer fest. Things quickly went through the floor for me though as I was dropped off the back in the first 1.5 miles of 27th street. No spunk in the legs. WTF? I had considered turning back but, forced my self on trying to get basically get my legs jump-started. I was at the five mile mark when I saw Pete come off the back of the group and I told myself that I could reel him back in before the turn in two more miles. Slowly but surely I was able to get things ticking over and by mile six I had caught Pete, got a short rest, and the two of us actually began to gain a little ground on the main group before the end of 27th St. where they stopped and we made the turn South to Dike. Doug and I were sitting on front talking and pacing the group towards Dike with no one coming around to take any pulls. We kept upping the pace little by little until someone finally said something about it, it actually helped me to get everything back into gear physically by the time we reached Dike, which is a neutral zone as of last night. :)

Continuing South from Dike, I stayed in the draft as much as possible with anticipation of J. Fry attacking along the Zanetta blacktop. Chad picked up the pace a bit and forced the small group of seven into a single file pace line cruising along in the mid to high-20s as we approached our final turn of the evening. Turning East onto the Zanetta blacktop saw the group slowly start to pick up pace up the hill when Doug lost his pump. I stopped to grab that as the group slowed back down and we regrouped one last time. After cresting the hill we began the speed increases and eventually saw riders start to pop. Going up one of the longer hills, I had just come off of a pull and as I was getting back on the paceline I saw a break starting for four riders so I quickly launched across the gap to get on Doug's wheel and make it five. Damon and Pete officially went off the back. The pace continued upwards to around 31mph and then there was a small surge that sen t Doug and me off the back as well. The two of us made quite an effort to get back on with both of us taking some pretty solid pulls and within about a mile or so we were back with the other three. It did not take long for Chad to pop and fall off the back to leave the final four about three miles from the edge of town. A couple of small attempts to pick up the pace failed and the four of us motored along to within a mile when Scott attacked off the front with J. Fry trying to stay on his wheel but eventually popping off his back. I was riding along in fourth wheel and caught back to Doug and made my way for J. Fry and then Scott. Scott sat up early and gave me the opportunity to repay Doug for his hard work to get us back to the group earlier, by giving him a proper lead out to the edge of Hudson for top honors. Pretty cool to think that the two of us get shelled, worked together to get back, and then retained just enough energy to get to town first. I definitely felt better after that one.

This entry was posted on 6.27.2008 at 5:39 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.