Tuesday 8/18 ride report

The power of positive thinking…. Affirmations reinforcing positive thinking. Tony Robbins, Depack Chopor, Tony Little, how can high performance people like these people be wrong? Especially Tony Little!
"I am a good person and because of that people really like me!", "I am a good bike rider and I can hang with the best of them. Well except for Luciano, Tom Orsini, Tattoo Dave and the other A riders" - Affirmations I spend an hour meditating on each morning when I wake up, and an hour before I go to bed each night.
On tonight's ride, thanks to a certain nameless local racing team who stacked the field - okay I'm calling them out, it was Spin Arts, I was forced into the power of negative thinking - "Damn it, I am not as good as I think I am. Who am I kidding, people hate me.. I AM not as good as I think I am…. I suck…. I suck more... there's no place like home, there's no place like home……"

40.5 miles
2:09:27 time
21.1 average MPH

We did the fruitlands loop and then some.
As soon as we hit Prospect St I noticed this funky odor coming from someone in front of me (not unusual on a hot steamy summer night). But this wasn't the usual stink of the guy (or gal) who didn't bother washing their chamois from the previous day's ride - this was a softer, gentler odor (I guess you might call it a scent). I'm kind of like a dog when it comes to this stuff, I tend to sniff around until I lock onto where it's coming from. After spending time drifting up and down the group I finally got a good read on it. "Huh? that's strange", I don't know how but the softer gentler scent seemed to be coming from Natalie's helmet of all places. I think it's time to give the helmet a bath.

Onto the ride.
Again, I don't know a lot of the roads east of Leominster, but I think most are familiar with the route.
We headed out to Rt 70, the Spin Arts boys and girls set the tempo which was fast. I got my one and only lead pull on that stretch, and when I got it up to about 27mph someone behind me told me to turn it up to 30…. Damn, this is a recreational ride, not a race. I did what I was told and held it as long as I could before flicking the elbow as the rest of the group pulled through.
A couple guys on yellow bikes (Boulder Cycling, Putney) and the Spin Arts team continued the fast pace all the way to the end.
The group pretty much stayed together as we took a right onto 117 and a left onto (Langden?). A mile onto Landgen Dave Lystra was the first to launch off the front - I yelled at "A Ride Greg" to chase him down for his team, but he was content to let him go ("they only move in one direction, which is back" was his response) and sure enough Dave was reeled back in.
We crossed over 70 and hit some rough roads before coming to the 5 corners - someone flatted (thank God, it was the soonest I had ever felt I needed a break in all the rides we've done this summer) - we regrouped at the gas station before heading towards Bolton.
As we rode towards Bolton I heard the Spin Arts guys in front of me ("A Ride Greg" and a couple of other trouble makers) talking about 400 meters, 300 meters, 200 meters, lead outs, etc, something was going on, but I was too dense or tired to realize what it was - it was too late when I realized they were setting up for the town line sprint - damn, before I knew what happened they and several others were off. Not sure who won, what difference does it matter - it was the night's theme, all Spin Arts all the time.
This is when I realized it was going to be a long hard night. From there on out it seemed like every time I looked up someone was off the front, sometimes way off the front.
Crossed 117 and headed towards Harvard, tried to stay on the front, but it was difficult - more guys & gals keeping a quick pace as we all braced ourselves for the hills.
I tried to concentrate on keeping the right gear, holding my line and staying on the wheel in front of me, I could hear everyone changing gears, I knew the attacks were about to come - sure enough one by one riders started moving up seeing who was going to be the first to the top.
I lost all my concentration though when I saw the nun walking the side of the road and someone from behind asked if that would be in the ride report? How the heck do you write something funny about a nun walking down the side of the road without being sacreligious - I'm in enough trouble here on earth, I'm not going to temp fate in the afterlife. She was kinda cute though, for a nun.
One problem on the way up the hills, behind me I heard the unmistakable sound of bikes colliding, unclipping (someone else must've lost concentration thinking about the nun too) - fortunately there was no damage, someone made a move and touched wheels with a rider behind them, fortunately the rider in the back managed to recover without going down (good bike control).
We regrouped at the top of the hill - headed down hill, a right a left another turn until we ended up on 110.
Looked up there was another rider way off the front - "A Ride Greg - let's bridge up and help your team mate" I yelled - I didn't think he was interested until he appoligized to Andi for what he was about to do which was to bridge up to his team mate ("A Ride", there's no appoligizing in bike racing, even on the B ride - just go) - I decided to go along to "help" - yeah right, as soon as we both went there were 5-10 riders on our wheels - my plan was to take turns rotating 30 second pulls with "A Ride" - this was the point in the ride when I realized I am not as good as I think I am. Not even close. No sooner did I jump in front of "A Ride" to take a pull when I found myself being swallowed up by the 5 or so people who latched on (after some thought I realized it was "A Ride Greg's" team mates ensuring a break didn't happen). Damn! It didn't matter, none of them were able to bridge up to what I was sure was another Spin Arts rider who was the first to arrive at the rotary.
Once around the rotary things got scary, real scary. - we headed out down the road the McDonalds is on (Sandy Pond road?)
It was getting dark and we still had a way to go - people were still riding the double yellow - I barely noticed the car coming in the opposite direction until I heard their brakes lock up - I looked behind me and had one of those WtF moments when I realized the other car coming from up behind that crossed over the double yellow trying to get around us. It was as close to a head on collision as I had ever seen.
And then it happened again.
And then Daren stopped the ride - I didn’t see it, but apparently a car coming up from behind came pretty close to taking out half the riders on the outside trying to move up 1 to 3 positions. Stupid! It's not a race, or even a training ride, although it felt that way all night. With all the moves going on and jockying for positions, there was very little paceline riding.
After Daren had the culprits in tears, things settled down a bit.
Took some more roads I don't know through Groton, eventually coming onto 225.
As we were heading down 225 towards Shirley all I kept thinking is "gotta get around Ernie, gotta get around Ernie", but I couldn't, for a good several miles I was stuck directly behind him staring at the brightest tail light I had ever seen, at least a 120 watter which I think he had hooked up to his power tap, the faster we went the brighter it seemed to get - (I swear they can see this light from the space station) - finally I gave up and pulled behind Dixie Chick Raye got into the drops and used her petite body to sheild me from the light.
The rest of the ride was uneventful - took a right onto 2A and a quick left taking us past the sand and gravel pit - one last sprint up the hill heading towards Powell. I usually grind this hill out in the big ring, but when Daren asked if I was going big or small I realized I didn't have the power, or desire to grind it out - so I told him small…. Good call Daren, sooooo much easier spinning it up the hill in a smaller gear than trying to grind it out in my 54.
From there we headed out of Lunenburg to Leominster, I was too tired to even drill it down Prospect St - watched as everyone went flying down to the red light - got across 13 and on to the shop.

Other than the couple of close calls, it was another good ride - I don't mind the heat after the miserable early season we had.