Tuesday night ride report - last ride of '09

The most depressing ride of the year report

It’s kind of like I imagine the pros might feel on the last day of The Tour, the final ride of a sometimes enjoyable other times punishing some odd 20+ weeks of riding, riding into Paris onto the Champs Elysees, Leominster, Prospect St, whatever…. Mixed emotions, excited about the ride itself and the post ride dinner’s opportunity to eat, drink, drink more and reminisce over the events of the past 5 or 6 months. Depressed that another year of Tuesday night rides is in the books, older, fatter, slower than the year before, for me anyway.
I was so bummed out about this fact I ended up getting to the shop at 4:30 just so I could extend the experience by another 90 minutes. All I really got out of the 90 minutes was a new water bottle Daren owed me from COVAC, and “A Ride Greg” making me even more depressed telling me how he dialed his HR up to 210BPM on his last training ride. Bowling, Croquet or Golf is the one decision I need to make this winter, and I blew all my money on bike stuff so golf is definitely out.. C’est la vie mes amis.

The stats:
Miles: 20.52
Time: 1.00.25
Avg MPH: 20.4

The ride – I think it’s the same loop we normally do on every "last ride of the year". Heading out of the shop it really was like the final stage of The Tour, everyone talking it up, having fun, the only thing missing was the Dom and some flutes to drink out of.
To be honest, I don’t remember crap about the ride, I think it was due to too much of Peter Cunningham’s wine during the post ride festivities, but I remember things picking up once we crossed Rt 70 and started heading into Shirley, a nice brisk pace, hit the hill and things started falling apart but not too bad. Slowed at the top and by the time we hit the stop sign I think we had everyone.
From there a left over 2 and then a right towards the prison where the speed always picks up, damn I was stuck in the middle on some of the worst tarmac this side of the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix. No matter, a busted up bike is a good excuse to upgrade to a Tarmac SL3 next year, right? New bike = faster speed, or so the good folks at GW are always telling me.
Or maybe not, if I can’t afford a set of Calloway clubs, I certainly won’t be able to afford the SL3.
We somehow ended up in downtown Shirley as we tend to do when heading past the prison. Took a right in the center, well some of us did anyways before realizing we were going straight over the tracks and then right - we really need race radios to keep this stuff in order.
I think we went straight, and then somewhere along the way there was this slight incline that seemed to go on forever, especially with Tattoo Dave, Dustin Pedroia, and a host of other A riders turning up the watts as they quickly separated themselves from the rest of the group.
Thankfully there was a stop sign somewhere along the way where we all stopped to regroup.
Took off again, a left onto 2A and then a real quick, pedal scraping sharp right that would lead us into Devens.
At this point I remember 2 things.
1. Noah pulling a Lance Armstrong and cutting over the grass to shave about 20 feet off his ride, I was actually quite impressed with his riding ability and the show he put on. Nice of him to let me know he did it to make it into the ride report.
Which brings up an interesting point – I didn’t realize anyone actually read the crap I spew out in these ride reports until a lot of people on the ride, as well as at the post ride festivities made comments about my commentary. I suffer from insecurity that goes back to my childhood when Billy McManus beat me up in front of the hottest girl in the 4th grade, so I still don’t know if people were complimenting me or pissed off at me for something I wrote about them or some dumb name I might’ve come up for them for them. Trust me, it’s all good, I love you all!!!!!! And thanks for the added pressure of coming up with new material for next year (my plan is to write about 20 of these in the off season and tailor them to each of the weekly rides next year before posting in the blog - we'll see how that works out).
2. The other thing I remember is after Noah pulled his stunt the roads got real nice and the speed was way up as we dipped into Devens – man it was fun trying to hang on at 40+ MPH flying down those hills.
Once out of Devens we headed back into Lunenburg and came out to PJ Keating.
After the right I knew…… I bided my time, cruising along in the pace line, occasionally drifting to the left to see how things looked….. tick, tick, tick, pull out for another look, time to move up. Big ring or little ring??? Last ride of the year 53/17 big ring for sure!
Slowly made my way to the front knowing full well what was coming.
The worst feeling in the world, positioning yourself perfectly when you know the attack is about to come, moving off the front as we headed up the sorry excuse of a hill, burning matches, HR in the red, aiming to be the first to the top. Things are looking good this time, maybe I have a chance.
And then the unmistakable sound of gears clicking, the steady rhythm of riders out of the saddle as their bikes twisting from side to side, the sound of their wheels tearing up the road.
And worst of all knowing there’s not a damn thing I can do to stop it (except to resolve to train harder with more intervals and less beer in the off season) slowly being swallowed up, one by one until there’s 2, 4, 7, 10 up the road, matches burnt, screwed again as more riders passed by and then total humiliation as the late night jogger passed me on the hill past Padula’s.
“Train smarter, not longer” – this is why I was so interested at the after ride festivities trying to get Tom Orsini to start up the Tuesday night trainer rides we had going on at GW a couple years ago, only this year I want them to start in October, not February.

Oh well, once we all made it up to the top of Prospect street everyone took their flyers down to rt. 13, as usual we missed the light again (I don’t think we ever caught it the entire season).

Back to the shop.

Only one award to give out – “650” Dawn” on the blue Trek got female rider of the night award not only because she was the only female to show up for the ride, but because covered every move throughout the night.
I also fear I might have scared off all the other female riders after my COVAC comments about keeping my head up instead of on the saddle in front of me. I'm still learning so bear with me.

The post ride dinner, as always was a blast. It’s always my opportunity to learn about the people I ride with throughout the year but was afraid to ask. Like putting names to bikes, helmets and kits.
Hats off to Daren, Gene and the folks at Gear Works for their generous donations of 3 water bottles that were raffled off at the end of the night.
Oh yeah, there were gift certificates in those water bottles - I know Dan Oulette was happy that he can buy that new cassette he was thinking about earlier in the day.

What else is there to say? It was another great year of riding. I’m depressed, but I’ll be all right with a little therapy, and when the first sunny days January and February roll around when we can get back outside for some Saturday base training rides.
Until then there’s still a lot of good riding to be had throughout the fall.

Hope everyone has a great off season, looking forward to riding with you again in '10.