April 5, 2004
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It's April 3rd and Sunday is upon us again.
I arrive to find
Paul, Dave, Jeff and Peter in the lot and having a good time chatting. We talk about the route and decide that
plan is sound. While waiting in the
parking lot Paul gets a flat! Turns out
to be a good size piece of glass. He had
put slime in his tires but it didn’t help in the instance. With the Tire repaired, Peter lays out the
route to us and it sounds good and we are off.
It was cold, about 32 but with a prediction of 66 for the
high but I could tell that no one was buying this, especially with the memory
of last week fresh in out minds. We are
doing the double paceline thing and Peter and Paul are at the front. I need to make a mental note not to let those
2 go to the front since the warm-up was a wee bit too fast. In any case when Geoff and I got to the front
we held a more or less civil pace and most of the troops followed suit. Besides, it’s a long ride and there is plenty
of time to let the testosterone flow.We are doing the flats up towards the
until Peter gets to the front. The pace
isn’t too bad but the effort seems tough too me and my legs don’t really want
to do this so early.
With Peter and Kent
ahead of me, I check my six and see that only Geoff is there. Well with that in mind, I decided to end my suffering now and let the
three of them go. Ah, that’s better,
it’s much nicer to hang back with Bob and Dave.
At some point in this melee I believe Bob had sorta attacked Peter on a
slight descent which may have ignited this little Skirmish. In any case we regroup shortly enough it’s
all good.The Pace more or less continues to be pretty brisk.
For some reason my legs feel pretty tired already, like I am not warmed
up, but also like they are fatigued.
Maybe I shouldn’t have gone to be at
(Really
but in any case I have expected to be more comfortable this early in the ride.
Since no one else appears to be in any discomfort I figure it must just be
me. One difference here is that we no
longer have a whipping boy so we aren’t stopping or slowing as much. I guess that Dave and Paul were pondering the
question, “Wonder if al that waiting is affecting our fitness” after doing one
of the LSR (Laurel Street Racing) training rides. In any case, I guess they got there wish.
We decide to take a break at the Conoco station to adjust
clothing, take in food etc. It’s kinda a
long stop but I am hoping maybe this will give me a chance to recover or warm-up
or whatever. With adjustments make we
are off. The pace is still brisk, but I
am feeling a bit better so life is good.
We are pretty much traveling at 18- 19 when someone picks up the pace
(Paul I think). So now we are doing 21
or so. With the pace hotting up, I once am OK but think that a slower pace
would be wiser but I am having a good time.
I must say that the
boyz are working fairly well together. :happY: I
think the pulls are still too long, but I guess it doesn’t matter at the speeds
we are doing. Another thing, while I am
digressing, is that I don’t think that we are taking up enough of the
road. I like to ride a foot or so into
the road. Reason for this is that the edges of the road contain crap that I
don’t want to ride through! Also when
following someone who is too far right, then there is only room for error to
the left otherwise one might find themselves off the road. A 3rd reason is attention. When there is more room on both sides of the
rider in front of me I can relax more.
Having to focus for long periods of time are draining, it’s like following someone who is a “bad
wheel”, you know the type, they can’t ride straight and are probably not ever
aware of it. Following here is really
mentally draining…… Another point is a higher speeds this danger grows even
more focus is needed. Lastly, riding too
close to the edge can make you less visible to cars. It’s an old racing trick to stay to the edges
of the road so that your pursuers can’t see you as easily. Taking a foot or so of the road makes the
care notice you!…. but enough digression.So we continue on and I can see that some of us are
beginning to weaken, including myself.
We make it to the turn unto stove prairie and Bob notices that Paul’s
tire has come off the bead. We take
this opportunity to make so clothing adjustments since my thermometer is telling
me its 70 degrees or so and with the brutal 4 mile climb upon this break is
welcome. Seems like we stayed here for a
bit too long, I don’t know why since I was chatting with Dave and Peter.We are finally back on the road and climbing. Peter is up
front followed by the GC contenders, Bob, Paul and Dave. Geoff and I and Kent are in the back a few
yards back. I decide that I need to bridge up to the group and Geoff is unable
to make the Jump. Guess those spinergy’s
are pretty heavy and that may have been the difference here. In any case, the pace is strong and it looks
as if no one in our foursome will yield.
I am really impressed with Bob and Dave here in that they are showing
some flashes of brilliance in their performances. Bob was pushing big gears
last year but now it’s clear he as taken a few pages from Lance's book. Dave’s form is coming on nicely and his
rhythm is steady which is always a sign of strength.So we are in the heat of battle and I fear that I might be
the 1st to crack. My HR is in
the low 180’s and it’s still early in the climb! Oh well, I am here and just
have to suffer as best I can. To my
surprise I find that Paul and Bob have been dispatched and it’s just Dave and
I. My HR makes it to about 187 and at
that point I look up the road see how much more descent we have and I must let
Dave go. I am with in a few yards and
although he is moving away from me it’s not like he is Peter. Speaking of Peter, well he checked out a
while ago, said something about climbing
Rist….
So Dave reaches a
faux summit a turns around. We
continue on this descent and are greeted by a rather angry German
Shepherd.
Dave locks up the rear wheel
and we both manage to make it out unscathed but folks need to keep there dogs
away from the street. Whew! I settle into
rhythm for the last descent which meant letting Dave go. I soft pedaled until
and Bob caught up and we road to the summit (Stove Prairie)
together. Peter comes down from climbing Rist with a blistering
time of ~7 minutes round trip..
A short wait later and we have regrouped and are heading
down the Buckhorn. I was taking it more
or less easy since I was on those 18mm tires and I don’t like to corner hard on
them. So, we come to that right hander
at the bottom of this descent with the Cattle grate. Geoff is in the lead and I see him point it
out in case some didn’t know about it.
In instance he is going too fast and after putting his hand back on the
bars was too hot and crossed the lane and landed safely in ditch/weeds. :bummer: He is OK and we are off again.
We are moving good and I am heading into this right hander
with Bob coming up on the right. He is
to hot and ends up locking up the rear and crossing into the on coming
lane. He didn’t go down so it’s all
good. The group got pretty split up
with Paul and I chasing in the rear.
Well my legs didn’t have the snap to go chasing hard so I was just going
with the flow and some how got a gap on Paul.
We finally caught Dave who was soft-pedaling to wait for us. (Thanks Dave). A mile or so up the road Kent and Geoff were
also waiting so we regrouped and had a good old time into Masonville where Bob
and Peter were waiting.With some of us in the need for water, none is to be found
in Masonville so we are off to Horsetooth reservoir. Peter takes off at one point since he needs
to get back. My legs are just about
ready to cramp and I get this wild idea to go chase down Peter. I am pretty tired and figure I will take it
easy after I catch Peter. Well Peter was
unfazed when I caught him, guess he knew I was writing Checks my body couldn’t
cash so he just held his pace. I slow up
and it turns out that Bob has dropped his chain. :bummer: Paul is with him so it’s the three of us in
the back. I drop off the pace and take
it easy. I see Jimbo (Jim Dickerson)
coming down the hill and we exchange greetings.
I decide to pick up the pace and I catch Geoff and am not too far behind
Paul at the summit.We get our water at Horse tooth Reservoir and we are off
again. We make the descent safely and
find ourselves at the bottom of the next hogback. Dave is setting a good pace and I am content
to just sit in. Paul decides to try and get some KOM points and attacks. He gets a small gap but Dave’s is able to
reel him in nicely.
Well since Dave did
most of the work I had a bit left and was quite surprised that I hadn’t cramped
up yet so I might as well deny Paul his prize.
In this group (Since Kent and Glenn weren't here) I think I have the best Sprint and so I was able to get
some minor KOM points. Peter and Dave
pretty much spanked the rest of us on the real MTN so the little points make one
feel good for about 15 ms or so.Now it’s onto the last Hogback, well this is a pretty fun
easy grade which I usually enjoy. Dave
is really feeling strong today and sets a good pace and gets a gap on the rest
of us. I decide to go and join him to
see if we can stay away. It wasn’t
enough and Bob joins us. We do the
paceline thing and when Bob is at the front Dave attacks and I go with
him. Since I was sitting in, I felt at
anytime I could have easily gone by Dave so I just figured I would sit in. To our surprise, Bob caught us and went
blowing by us! I guess we should make
this one of our designated sprint areas but we need to decide the official
finish line…..I stop and wait for Paul and Kent to pass and figure that
Geoff can’t be too far behind so I take off.
Paul heads for his new home and I continue on. Somewhere on Harmony
Geoff catches up and since Dave and Bob waited up we have regrouped again. Bob and Kent peel off for home and it’s just
Dave and I. We start the cool down and
Dave peels off. A good ride! I had 72 miles, 3940 ft of ascent, at 16.5
mph Avg and I burned 3175 calories.
Probably the Hardest ride we have done all year!
On a side note, Maybe we should think about
getting jerseys in the future. Some of the groups we passed looked
pretty sharp! Just somethinkg to think about.
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