I had legs of steel today! I woke up a little late, but got a good breakfast, and headed off for the Sunday late-risers ride. Eric was down in Lakeland at the state championship crit, so I figured maybe I'd actually be able to get a sprint or something.
We started out heading down the Hawthorne trail, and then turned south, into the wind, on CR325. With my rear shifter/derailleur all messed up, this bumpy road shifts my gears around like no other. It's a pain to ride. I've vowed never to ride it solo again. One of the guys was having a bit of trouble, so Justin held back to make sure he knew how to get home, and Dustin held back to help Justin chase back on. This is where things got hairy. The remaining group of three had taken off up the road, and I chased up to them to let them know Justin and Dustin were chasing back on, and asked us to hold up a bit for them. No problem, we all sat up and cruised for a bit. I'm not quite sure what happened next, if somebody mentioned the word 'gap' or 'hammer' or not, but we were cruising at about 24 all of the sudden. I was at the front (though I did not initiate the acceleration, I think we all know I've got an inability to control myself and not follow them) when we came to a right turn onto a different county road. Somehow, Dave was on my wheel, and we got about a 30 foot gap through the corner. I was ready to ease up and regroup, but Dave said, "Let's just hold them off until the county line." It seemed like a good idea to me, but the county line was about five miles down the road, and all into the wind. At least the guy's behind us didn't have a group size advantage on us.
Dave and I worked pretty well together. His breath was getting more and more ragged after each pull, so right before the final left hand turn, and about two miles to go to the county line, I attacked when he pulled off and he blew up. I took the sprint (my first in a group ride, I think!) and had a wonderful solo celebration, and put it in the small ring, soft pedaling to catch my breath and wait for the others.
The rest of the ride rounded out pretty normal. There were three more sprints and I got lucky three more times, and I felt great doing it.
Things are coming together nicely. I've just got to keep up the hard work, and hopefully I can make some things come together in just a bit.
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A long list of excuses...
About Me
- Mike Arena
- I'm a full time student, part time transcriptionist, part time seamster, and a three-quarters time bike racer.
2 comments:
Hey Mike,
I found your blog by accident.
I remember this ride and here are some of the details from my perspective.
I do remember the "ustins" being off the back for some reason and Tom Levy saying that we should drop the hammer. I was on the front and even though there was a bit of a headwind I felt fine pulling at 24 mph into the wind for a while. I may be old and my sprint is long gone, but I do still have decent 5 minute power!
At the turn onto CR 346 I hung back and told Tom that we should "shadow" you and Dave for a while and let you guys "cook" off the front. Eventually we started to chase and had cut the gap by quite a bit but then Tom said that he had to get back to town and went straight on CR 346 instead of turning south toward Evinston.
By that time you had dropped Dave and I was gaining on him, but sat up and let him at least get the glory of second place at the Evinston sprint. He had worked hard and deserved it.
Not long after I sat up both of the "ustins" caught me. They must have been motoring!
That was a fun ride. It was the first ride after my crash where I was starting to feel "OK" on the bike again.
Hey, I've got a reader!
Yeah, I figured you guys were back there letting us go for it. When we got the gap in the corner, Dave said just go for it, so I did.
I was just glad everybody sat up for a bit after that, as I was pretty cooked.
Your 'decent' five minute power is a bit of an understatement. I believe I've heard the name "long hard pull Dave" before, but who knows where that came from.
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