Tuesday Night 7/14 Ride Report

Total distance: 46.53 (including a quick 3 mile warm up with Dave Dufort)
Total time: 2:12
Average MPH: 21.1
Total climbing: 1996ft according to Garmin Training Center software, 888ft on SportTracks software - something's not right!

Forgive me in advance, I know most every road west and north of Fitchburg, but whenever we head east I'm lost as was the case last night. So I don't know a lot of the street names and route numbers.
The ride headed up Prospect to Mechanic St, crossing over 70 along the road that runs parallel to rt 2 (I think it's the same road they found the body wrapped in a blue tarp earlier this year, I might not have the ability to remember my anniversary but I tend to remember morbid facts like that). Thankfully the only foul odors seemed to be coming from 1 or 2 in front of me and not from the side of the road.
The ride started out boring as hell, flat as a pancake. Rode into Shirley, a right onto the road that takes us past the prison. Everyone was going at a pretty good pace while passing through Devens into downtown Ayer before taking a left somewhere around JP O'Hanlon's onto a couple of back roads before ending up on a long straight road.
I'll admit, I was riding in the back, not paying attention. Basically falling asleep.
And then everything changed.
When I woke up there were 5 or 7 riders away, a good 1/2 mile off the front, bombing down whatever road it was we were on in Ayer. I saw Dave Lystra up the road and bridged up to him, but we couldn't get it going to bridge the gap to the lead riders.
I probably shouldn't tell anyone this, but everytime I see Dave I have this god awful image of him in a toga. I'll spare everyone the details - but I'm sure someone at the Gardner Ale House has pictures if anyone's interested (I'd suggest not trying to track them down).
Anyways, we regrouped somewhere before Littleton Depot and the took a right on Harwood Ave, maintained a quick pace, and then the hills started.
So much for a boring ride.
I wanted to stay near the front so I marked a couple people's bikes, I'll admit to not being good remembering people's names, but Brandt, Natalie, the guy on the red Giant TCR, the kid from GW on the Cervelo, a Litespeed, dark gray R600 and a couple others are the ones I remember (and it's hard remembering when you're oxygen depleted) We regrouped in Littleton for a flat before heading into Boxboro, Acton, picked up 111 and more hills, dropped by red TCR and a bunch of others (and these aren't even real hills). Caught back on, went up past Fruitlands, damn that hill is painful.
Once over the top everyone was taking flyers down the hill, fast and furious all the way into Bolton. There were a few people close to the double yellow I feared for with cars coming up the opposite side. But everyone was safe.
We regrouped at the intersection of 110 and 117 (Bolton Orchards) which is where I had my once in a lifetime moment of glory.
Just as the light turned green Brandt shouted out to Darren to hop on his wheel and he would play the lead out for the town line sprint into Lancaster (Mark Renshaw to Mark Cavendish). But Darren missed his cue and didn't jump on. Lucky me, I found myself on Brandt's wheel - while he was churning out like 100,000 watts of power leading me out, I was probably at about 200 watts, legs on fire, lungs on fire, gasping for air trying to hang on - all the time all I could think about was if I don't hang on all his work would have been been a big FAIL and someone else was going to take the sprint.
Brandt set it up perfectly - I somehow managed to hang on. With about 100 yards before the town line he peeled off to the left, I was in his slipstream and flew past him, I heard a lot of swearing all around when other's realized how perfectly Brandt played it as I took the glory over the line.
Now I know how important Mark Renshaw is to Mark Cavendish. Renshaw does all the work, Cavendish cranks it out for the last 500m and takes all the glory.
Fun times on a Tuesday night!!!!
The ride along Rt 70 through Lancaster center was uneventful until we took the right onto the last 4 miles of rt 70.
Again, I don't know people's names, but I know one thing - there are a lot of stong women on the Tuesday night ride who can tear it up over those last few miles. A couple of Spin Arts kits one on a Colnalgo the other on a blue Spin Arts bike, the petite woman with the blue Trek 5200 and camelback (I still can't figure out where she gets all that power), Andi on the Specialized, Natalie - all of them are incredibly stong especially when a lot of the guys, myself included are hurting on those last few miles along Rt 70.... It was a fast 4 miles, a good paceline with everyone taking short pulls before pulling off and jumping on the back again.
I could feel the GU rising up in my throat trying my best to hang on to that group for the last several miles - as always those few miles were brutal!
Finally got to the dealership and slowed it down. Cruised back on Mechanic and flew down Prospect street back to the shop.
All in all it was another great Tuesday night ride.
I wish everynight could be Tuesday. There's no better group of people to ride with.