Tuesday 8/4 Ride Report

Total Ride: 40 miles
Total time: 2:20
Average speed: 19.6mph

First off I want to express my disapointment at not being invited to the GW annual outing. I'm sure the invitation was somehow lost in the mail, but nonetheless I know Gene's got my phone number because he's always calling me trying to collect on the $6.49 he thinks I owe him for the gel packs (I got the receipt to prove I paid!). Hell, I would've even gone as Darren's date, I'm not proud, for free beer and food I would've held hands with him for a couple hours.
I hope the flight out to Nantucket on Gene's Gulfstream was enjoyable, along with the lobsters, wine, champagne and beer.
Maybe next year.

Onto the ride… 2 weeks in a row with hot weather and no rain. Someone might mistake this for summer.
Last things first. After the ride a secret vote was taken, Darren's out, Natalie's in as the new ride leader. She proved herself by picking the perfect route for a hot summer's night. Nice roads, good pace, and only 1 flat near the end of the ride. Great job!

I'm not sure of some of the roads, but we took off out of the shop and headed up towards the hospital and zigged and zagged our way over to Pleasant St which wasn't so pleasant as we started the climb towards Sholan Farms. I tried to think of something to distract myself from the pain that was being inflicted on me from the 2 guys in the front - the John Denver song "Sunshine on my Shoulders (makes me happy)" came into my head, problem solved (kind of). HR was way in the red most of the ride up there as I struggled to stay on the wheels of the guy on the Cervelo R3 (Target Training kit) and another guy on a blue Cannondale wearing a blue Unum kit - who invited these guys to the party? these guys were strong and pulled about 10 of us past Sholan to the intersection of N. Row Rd.
I didn't realize a gap that had opened until we waited up for the rest of the group. (after thinking about it I realized they got caught at a red light and that was the reason for the 10 minute wait).
From there things settled down, a little bit. We continued up (and down and up again) Heywood Rd to Rowley to Justice Hill which is always good fun on a hot night, went down Justice Hill cutoff and came out to 62(?) - a quick left off 62 onto some back roads until we finally ended up on Rt31, headed south to the corner store .
Pulled out onto Manning St, across 190 looking for a left onto Osgood street (or some street that began with an O) - hOsmer st, close enough.
Over to 140 and then the back roads into Sterling Center, down 62, cut over some more back roads I don't know - someone flatted, waited up, down George Hill to Langen, right on 117 and then the left onto the infamous 4 mile stretch of Rt 70.
Nice steady pace as we began that last 4 miles, 18, 19, maybe 20mph (too dark to see the computer) - I kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting some more, I knew it was coming and I'd be damned if I was going to miss it. Or was everyone content to take it easy for the last few miles.
The guy in the Harpoon kit kept up the nice steady pace. Didn't he know?
I couldn't stand it anymore, I'm no hero, but I was feeling strong so I launched off the front, it was a strange feeling, I seemed to be getting stronger and stronger with each pedal stroke - I felt as stong as 10 Fabien Cancellaras pulling away from the group, I didn't need to look back, I quickly calculated the gap I was opening, 10meters, 50, 100, 150, 200 meters! It was incredible as I thought about the trail of dust those behind me were left choking on.
After about 2 miles (or maybe it was 2/10ths of a mile that seemed like 2 miles) I finally looked back.
And then I woke up from my dream.
Cervelo R3, Blue Cannondale, gray cannondale, Dave Lystra, Rwanda, and a couple of others were about to swallow me up. Damn, I had burnt every match I had, just pick a wheel and try and stay on. Closed my eyes and tried not to think about the pain.
"Sunshine on my shoulders, makes me happy"

Another great Tuesday night…. About the only part that sucked was realizing the days are quickly getting shorter. I can't believe COVAC is less than a month away.