Tuesday Night B+ Ride 4/17/12

Nice to see a lot of the old faces back on the Tuesday night ride - Leon, Folsom, Jay B, and others.
Tonight's ride again started out up Prospect Street, a brisk pace as we turned right onto Shopping Plaza Hill, as soon as we hit the downhill the attacks started coming fast and furious - 1,2,5 riders took flyers down the hill, these sandbaggers obviously didn't belong on our ride.
And then we got to the stop sign and I started my rant - I tend to get a little jacked up on these rides (the 2 pre-ride Jet Blackberry GUs with 2x caffeine doesn't help the HR, but it does prepare you for a lot of other shit you're going to encounter on the ride) so the adrenaline overtakes common sense - who knew the A ride was doing damage control by trying to get by us as quickly and safely as possible.
I stopped and yelled at Krysten and a couple of other guys before Luch pulled up and yelled at me for yelling at his ride. Next week I'll know.
But yelling was in order over the first several miles of the ride.
As we pulled out of Mechanic across 70 the shit started happening - on the front as we went across 70 onto Old Union Turnpike I tried setting a quick tempo pulling the group up "that hill", keeping things in order, single file, nice and orderly. But it wasn't to be, I heard the gears clicking and the attacks coming, F me, this stuff isn't supposed to happen at mile 4, but it did, and the strong guys rode away while the rest of us tried to maintain order.
This happened again.
And again.
A group of 4 or so, I won't mention names Moeckel and Zim and the other two I didn't catch were ripping it apart as we headed down towards Shirley Center, and then across the tracks all the way until we regrouped at 2A.
That's when the GIRL got things under control - short pulls so we can all work together as a group to keep things fast and organized - emphasis on the organization.
Finally things started to work and work well.
Obviously it wasn't going to last - we still had that bitch of a climb on Wallace Hill Rd ahead of us, but the next couple of miles things settled down, and we all started working together and it was fun again.
And then we regrouped, waited for the traffic to pass on Main St., I think we all enjoyed the recovery - rolled across onto the start of the climb.
This is where stuff was going to happen.
And it did.
F me, I hate this road, not that it's so steep, I actually enjoy the steep stuff because it happens early on.
But when that section is over and done with you look up and all you see is this long stretch of road that seems to go up and up and on forever.
And that's when the head goes down, the lights go out and the saliva pours down the side of my face like my favorite dog, Shawnee's Bermese Mountain Dog Junior (shameless plug here):



I was somewhere in the pack, maybe 5 or 6 off the front - buried it, lights out, puke zone, I wanted that hill bad - I managed to pick off 1, 2, 4 riders, I still don't know who the rabbit up the road was, probably TC, maybe someone else - I started counting pedal strokes, 1,2,3,4, 1,2,3,4, my head was down and I have no idea if I was closing the gap or not (probably not) - I'd settle for 2nd.
Closer to the top, I could feel it, I had at least a 20 meter gap on everyone else - only a couple hundred meters to go.
And then I knew it was over, I heard the wheels twisting over the pavement, where the hell did they come from, in my mind I had opened up a 1/4 mile gap - reality is often different than perception. Wake up call! I was about to get smoked, 1,2,4 riders picked me off, I managed to pull a couple back, in the end I think it was a draw between about 6 of us.
Recovery time at the top before heading down that hill where it gets real fast again - just watch out for the potholes and the seams in the pavement, don't want to hit any of that at 40mph (I don't think my dental insurance covers road damage) - I was on the good wheel, JC, nothing to worry about, but even JC gets caught up in the unforeseeable - I don't know how I missed catching his wheel at the bottom, but thankfully I did because that would've been a real buzz-kill (like when you're 17 smoking weed with your buds in your friend's basement and all of a sudden through the smokey haze you see his mother standing there with "that look" on her face - not that I've ever been there mind you, but I know people who have).
No matter - we survived it. The GIRL said we were going to Charlie's house, so I was pretty stoked, looking forward to some burgers on the grill and a couple of cold ones. It sucked knowing Charlie wasn't going to be driving us home in his Honda after Sunday's mishap, but maybe someone bought Gene's Suburban and we could toss the bikes on the roof for the ride back to Gear Works.
What the GIRL meant to say was we would be riding BY Charlie's house, not actually stopping for BBQ and beers - more suckage.
Oh well, we made it down Dudley - headed down 119 for the .10 miles before taking the left onto W. Townsend Rd. Supposedly it was going to be excellent stretch of pave', (freshly paved and real fast) - but those first several miles were like riding the Arenberg section of Paris Roubaix (the toughest 2.5km of the race) - we were doing well riding the cobbles until we had our first mishap of the night, not one, but 2 flats. I noticed Tom Stevens had one, and then further back I could see another group. Tom's self sufficient so I rode back to the other group.
JC also flatted.
No worries, Jason Bourgeois was on the scene ready to help. He's a mechanic at Gear Works so I was sure he had matters in hand. JC got the tire off the rim, threw me the flatted tube (which I kept and will frame and hang in my freshly remodeled living room) - Jason was a big help and quickly handed the new tube to JC, who got it on the rim in seconds flat (no pun) - I had Co2 ready to go, JC turns the wheel over, looks good, I'm ready to inflate.
WtF Jason! I don't know if they taught you this in bike repair 101, but whatever tube you gave him, the stem wasn't going to work on a 58mm rim. Me thinks you need the remedial summer school bike repair class at the Mount.
Finally got that straightened out just as Tom was finishing his repair (I assume a tubular).
And then got rolling.
La de da de da, it was a nice leisurely 15mph pace on a road that was meant to be ridden much faster, I had all I could do to stay awake. Who was at the front anyway?
Finally Jeff Robert corrected the problem by going to the front and getting things rolling - and then it got fast again, real fast - and the train was rolling like it should be rolling, smooth and fast.
We were tearing it up, everyone was working the front real hard. I had Noah's wheel which is is a very good wheel to have when your 2nd back - the guy was killing it, he was Mark Renshaw and I was Caviendish on the old HTC train, he buried himself for at least a couple hunderd meters before peeling off, and then I drilled it like I owed it to my leadout man, it was amazing! These things only happen by being in the right spot at the right time, and Noah's wheel was the place to be!!!!!
Too bad I shamed myself later on.
Ho hum, past Coolidge Park, and then up to Boutelle St, I still love riding through the 'Burg, the Spanish fans love to cheer us on and it's great. Boutelle was fast, but too short - rolled onto left onto Summer and then onto Bemis.
Slowed to reorganize one last time before the finishing sprint down Airport Rd.
You just knew this was going to be fun.
REAL FUN!
I rode up and looked for my spot.
Where the fuck was Noah when I need him, I know he was up front but I couldn't find him.
Oh well, there were other wheels to pick.
I chose wrong - too close to the front and the really fast guys behind me, including TC.
Lesson learned, get behind the fast guys, not in front of them.
This is how I remember it, but I might be right or I could be wrong -
I was 3 or 4 behind the lead out man, who I think was a woman (Robin) - as always she pulled hard, I was worried she'd ride the 2 guys behind her off her wheel, but whoever they were held it - she peeled off, I let a small gap open up so she could sneak in and maybe contend for the sprint - so I had her wheel which is a good wheel to have.
The first guy peeled off.
Then the next guy.
Robin was killing it, but it was good, I felt strong and held it, I was ready, she peeled off and I went, hard, and tried to hold on and not think about the small stuff - like dying, but if I had to die it was a good night for dying.
Again, reality doesn't always match up to perception - I thought I had opened a small gap, maybe even more than a small gap, I started to think about the Tuesday night glory, the town line, less than a mile, maybe.
I took a peak over my shoulder, I wasn't sure who it was, but of course they were right there on my wheel.
Decision time.
Instead of pulling for another hundred meters I tossed in the towel and bailed.
I was humiliated, especially when thinking about Noah's pull earlier in the ride.
I'm no Mark Renshaw -
I was dropped like a rock - TC, Moekel, the GIRL, Steve Z, Steve D, many others, they were all over me like a swarm of angry bees. No chance tonight, my night was over while I watched the rest punch it out for the town line.
But there were lights up ahead - they were blue and flashing. And cars coming in the opposite direction.
FPD had a car pulled over - screwed up the last 100 meters of the sprint.
I have no idea who won - in the end what does it matter? And I don't think anyone really cares about the glory - although Alex still kept it going well beyond the finish line, good work guy!
This was one of those nights that had the potential of being a complete disaster but because someone was able to pull the whole thing together, turned out to be one of the best rides ever.
This shit is getting real fun.
Lets do it again next week.

Riders of the night (I'm not going to do this each week, but there were a couple who deserved attention):
1st place - the guy who broke his front cable - he had 2 gears all night and he made the best of them.
The rest:
Jay B - I didn't think he had it in him, but the guy rode hard all night, including the hills. Well done.
The guy I called out in last week's blog, Bill did well tonight - still needs to work a little harder on his pulls, but a lot better than last week's effort.
Noah for making me a Tuesday night hero with the sprint down W. Townsend.

That's all - thanks again everyone for all the hard work and making tonight's ride a lot of fun!

Tuesday night B ride report by Charlie - 4/10/12

The B group started out with around 10 riders last night. We were on our way up Prospect Street and I was leading the group at a leisurely pace until we came up to Lawrence Street ( street on the left ) where a car stuck his SUV nose almost in front of me. I stopped pedaling and when you’re going uphill it’s the same as putting your brakes on. Also moved a bit to the left which almost took down the rider’s right in back of me because he overlapped my wheel a tad. Unfortunately Big Dave who was third wheel did kiss the pavement and absorbed most of the impact was on the left side of his face.

After checking to ensuring he was ok, we adjusted his bike and based on the external cuts I saw advised him to ride back to the shop and go to the hospital for stitches. I think he had more damage internally but I wasn’t sure about that.

So now I’m depressed and feeling responsible for what happened. Kept running over in my mind how I could have handled this differently. Did not get a lot of sleep last night thinking about this.

Continuing back up Prospect Street we made our way over to Route 70. I could sense that something was going wrong with my rear wheel and when we arrive near the soccer fields on route 70 it starting seizing up. I stopped and Mike from the shop determined that my rear hub was shot.

I instructed the rest of the group to continue on and that I would ride back to my car in Leominster. The rear wheel wobble staring getting so bad that even with my brake adjusted wide open it was still rubbing on the brake block. They were a couple of hills that I had to walk up it was that bad.

I finally got back to my car at 7pm, and dropped my rear wheel at the shop for them to perform an autopsy on the rear hub. I hope they can fix it and have it ready for Saturday’s mornings ride. If not I’ll have to go with my back up wheels.

I left the shop right away and went up to Leominster Hospital to check on my friend Dave. I figured I could keep him company while he was getting patched up. The ER waiting room was pretty packed but I located Dave and his wife was already with him to keep him company. Dave had an ice pack on the left side of his face to keep the swelling down and had not even seen the doctor yet. Looked like he was going to be there awhile so I left and drove back to the shop to give everyone and update on Dave.




I guess the rest of the B ride was uneventful and I feel awful about what happened last night.



Here’s an email I received from Dave.

After a 4 hour stint in the ER and 5 stitches on the outer lip and 3 on the inner lip, a tetanus shot and a sore wrist, I am doing OK.

The bike is fine as far as I could tell.. Thanks Daren for straightening out the handlebars. I will check for further damage tomorrow.

I have penicillin to take for 5 days.

Tuesday night ride report - 4/10/12

Next week someone please remind me there’s no need to do the 20 mile pre-ride ride before the Tuesday night ride. That was my first mistake - there were more to follow.

Everything from tonight is more or less a blur, the accuracy of this report is suspect. Feel free to correct any errors or ommissions.

First off, it totally sucked going up Prospect and seeing the B group pulled over to the side with Big Dave bleeding profusely. I don’t know much of the details other than a. a car pulled out too onto Prospect St. causing the accident, and b. Big Dave is apparently okay. Someone please post details of what happened.

The new Cat B+ ride started off a little late, someone decided he wanted a pair of knee warmers before heading out, but was shamed out of it by one of the managers at the shop – apparently it’s frowned upon holding up the ride for the sake of comfort. If he had sold me the right size when I bought the originals last weekend this problem could’ve been avoided. But in this case the customer was wrong.
Oh well, there were bigger problems ahead than riding barelegged.
Good thing I brought that 1 GU with me – that lasted me all of about 30 minutes before the effects wore off.
I was screwed all the way around tonight staring with that pre-ride ride, lack of food and water, and being totally outclassed by others in the group.

Oh, I suppose you’re all less interested in the whine and more interested in what may or may not have happened tonight as seen from my perspective.
Well this is it, rode out of the parking lot, up Prospect St, saw the carnage from the B ride.
Steve pulled with the GIRL on 2nd wheel, lights went out – and some 30 miles later we pulled into GW. That's the whole story.

Somewhere in between I remember a couple of things.
I was on the front as we hit the top of Prospect and started to roll down Shopping Plaza Hill – there was a traffic light at said shopping plaza, it was turning from green to red. 9 times out of 10 I run that light, and 9 times out of 10 in years past I would get yelled at for running that light.
New year, new rules, no slowing for a red light unless it’s a 4 way intersection.
Mea culpa to the group – I paid the price as they rolled by and I tried to catch the last wheel down to Mechanic St.
We stopped, we rolled onto Mechanic, it got fast again real quick.
Dust was flying up, Noah was showing off again - I have to admit, it was somewhat impressive watching him doing his off road stuff. The dust reminded me of sections of Paris Robaix this past weekend.
And speaking of that race (this will only make sense to about 4 people), yes, I know, it's Fortini, not Fortunini or Fettachini - I'm glad I was able to amuse some of you this past sunday. And in case you're wondering, no, the upgrade did not come through so there'll be no Battenkill as a 4 this year. I'm kinda relieved.

Okay, back to the show - as it always does, the real fun began as we took the right onto 70 – I have to admit that was good fun, no more worrying about riders blowing up on that stretch, the group was on a fairly level playing field as far as fitness goes. People did their pulls, some longer than others, nonetheless we kept it together to the end as we turned right onto 117 and then onto Langden.
Landen was fun – I was 3rd wheel – the 2 in front of me did their work, I think I did okay on my pull before pulling off and letting the group pull though.
All night it was the same old story, take a pull, peel off and then do everything in my powers to catch that last wheel without becoming road kill.
Turned off Langden and headed over the gravel towards ALC.
This is when the trouble started. I thought I heard what I didn’t want to hear – the unmistakable sound of a hiss from a tire going flat.
Fuck me! (sorry kids, this blog is now R rated).
I’ve gotten 6 flats on rides this year, there is one common denominator – every ride I’ve flatted on had one particular friend on every one of those rides. He’ll remain nameless only because he had me over for Easter dinner – and his wife is an amazing cook.
The flat change was a complete cluster f*ck because I don’t perform well under pressure. Let’s just keep this our little secret because I don’t want the word to get out on the street. Just in case.
I swear I checked the tire before rolling out, it was clean.
Made it 20 feet before that hissing sound reared it’s ugly head once again. Rookie mistake, didn’t check the tire close enough, Noah realized the piece of glass stuck in the side, picked it out, changed the tube in record time (Jeff Gordon’s pit crew isn’t as fast as Noah when it comes to replacing a tire).
By then I was pissed – I felt I owed it to the group to blow myself up and pull for as long as possible – I think I made it to the 5 corners, and then some more as we rolled left onto 110.
Dumb move on my part – this is not the group to be playing heroics with – I burned more than a couple of matches on that pull and I was in the puke zone as I grabbed last wheel and held on for dear life over the next couple of miles.
Thankfully we forked off to the left (instead of those punchy hills towards Nashoba) and headed towards Bolton Orchards. The light there is always red, thank God recovery time was close at hand.
It was red!
Until we got about ¼ mile from there and then it went green, story of my night, more bad luck, no recovery, more work to be done.
Everyone seemed to be pegging it trying to make the light.
Save for one, and it wasn't moi.
WtF – I looked up and the GIRL was in complete hysterics, throwing her arms up in the air, violently pointing at something – and then I realized what had happened.
I hate calling people out, but Frodo Baggins for some unexplainable reason decided to sit up and let a big gap open – the GIRL took off, I had a choice, grab the GIRL’s wheel, or suffer humiliation – I grabbed the wheel and held on with every milligram of that GU I had left inside of me and made it through the intersection.
I think we were together heading towards Harvard – Recovery started to set it, it was almost enjoyable riding the stretch into Harvard – even the small hill where the nuns hang out wasn’t bad.
I like nuns - not the good ones serving a higher cause (well I admire their dedication), but the ones in the videos that wear stilletos. Ah maybe we should keep this between us as well.
On the front again, I wasn't happy, on a mission, I was bound and determined to shed Frodo and one or two others.
Turned left onto the hill up to Fruitlands, this is where I wanted the attrition to happen.
I think it might’ve worked.
But that’s when bad luck struck again – I heard the commotion behind, I hate that sound worse than the hissing of a flat. Someone went down.
Unavoidable – Robin bumped wheels with Tyler, these things happen, Robin went down, fortunately other than the adrenaline rush and a couple of scrapes, she was okay. Tyler felt bad for a slight drop in acceleration, Shawnee felt bad for running over his friend Robin. And I felt bad because Baggins was still with us.
Which played perfectly into Frodo's hand, time for him to recover.
There’d be no more chances to shed him.
This week anyway.
The rest of the ride was fast, but uneventful – we turned left onto 110 and headed towards Ayer, there was some confusion with the path those in the front picked around the safety barrels set up in the construction zone. Made it through those okay, no regrouping needed at the rotary – heading through downtown Ayer, we pissed off more than a few motorist trying to make it down the same road.
Straight through down towards Devens – rough pavement turns real nice – the group was flying as we went up and over the little bump over the bridge, more pain was being dished out by Steve – who the hell invited him on this ride anyway? He and JC just got back from a month of training in Spain and both were flying like Valverde when he was sporting the national champion colors of Spain.
I didn’t mind being on Steve’s wheel because I felt no pressure to hold it whenever he took off – I’m not proud, I’d let the gap open, he could sit up or ride a solo TT because I had the rest of the group behind me.
But again, it held together pretty well all the way into Shirley where we held our last regroup and a summit meeting of sorts.
At the summit it was agreed there’d be a truce on the 2 painful climbs left – Keating, and the hill up to the summit of Prospect.
If I had a dollar for every time I heard that one (as well as the “it’s only going to be an leisurely pace”), I would be doing more riding and less working.
I trust no one, especially in this group – I could see certain riders salivating as the hill up Keatings stood before us – and then it was game on – Shawnee and Re went, I'm sure Steve did as well, there were others, I was looking down at the pavement trying not to think about certain things, like vomiting, others passed me, I managed to pick off a couple.
And then out of nowhere the hero of the night, one Frodo Baggins, finally decides he’s going to grab some KOM points. Well played, the guy sits in all night, does 0 work, and makes his one heroic effort with less than 5 miles to go.
To top it off once at the top of the hill Frodo pulled about 20 feet off to the left to let others do the work of bridging the gap Shawnee and Re’ opened up.
That’s when the real hero emerged – SHE wasn’t happy, SHE actually frightened me with her anger because I had her wheel and I always get scared when SHE flips the finger, mutters some obscenities, goes into the drops and buries it. Anyone in their right mind would be frightened too.
Unfortunately there was no way in hell SHE was going to be able to shut it down. The gap was at least 100-150 yards, Shawnee and Re’ are strong. But then again, SHE was pissed, and let this be a lesson to any guy reading this - never underestimate what an angry woman can do. There had to be at least 100-200 yards to close – no way.
I was buried deep inside the cave, I had everything I could do to hold her wheel, I would’ve even given her some help in the attempt to bridge the impossible, but SHE was having none of that – sure as shit I could see the impossible happening, SHE was closing it.
And about 2 minutes later SHE did closed it.
Hero of the night award goes to the girl.
At that point I was toast, I didn’t care about anything anymore except making it to the shop and having a liquid refreshment. So I got dropped going up to the summit of Prospect. The lights at the bottom of Prospect are the great equalizer, caught the group there.
We all finished together.
Other than the 2 flats and the mishap up to Fruitlands, it was an awesome night with 10 or so of my favorite people in the whole world.
Thanks Noah for the help with the flats, and everyone else for riding strong and steady all night. Made for a very fun (but painful) night.