March 20, 2005

  • Sunday and life is once again good.  Time for the ride!  I
    find Geoff, Kent, Dave and Jerry waiting in the FCHS parking lot having
    a good time.   We decide to stick to the plan and do the
    Centennial loop.   Bummer that the batteries in my camera
    were dead so I didn't get to take the obligatory group "happy in the
    lot before the suffering is to begin" shot. Oh well. you know what we
    look like by now

    So the warmup is really easy today with Dave and I leading the effort,
    if you want to call it that.  With the Big men, "Peter, Ron" not
    present the pace is really easy and it should be interesting when we
    get the hills to see who the KOM "king of the Mountain" pretenders
    are.  Well I have no real ambitions to ascend to the thrown today,
    but I am sure gonna have a good time seeing what develops.

    So as we reach the Dog Park a lone riders rolls up on us we exchange
    greetings.  His name is Jay-Z like the rapper!   
    We inviite him to join us and after a bit of reflection he decides to
    join our merry band.  I should state that Jayz-Z has this really
    old school vetta Hemet, really cool and retro and hopefully still
    functional..... but I digress.

    So we are approaching the `1st hog back and life is good and everyone is
    together.  I think it was Kent and Geoff at the front setting a
    civil pace when Dave went to the front to assert himself!    
    Hmmm guess he must be feeling pretty good!  Even  I wasn't
    sure if anyone was gonna go with him so I decide to join him and keep
    him in check!  Ok my legs are not at 100% but they are close
    enough so I might as well go for the ride and keep him honest.   
    I find  I decide to go to the front and  to make a short
    story even shorter,  I got the KOM points followed by Kent and I
    am not sure who was 3rd but I think it was Jay-Z!

    Hmmm, Jay-Z is pretty strong and I am impressed with his
    climbing!   Seems like we "The Breakfast Club" keeps finding
    these strong riders! mutants if you will.   We might have to
    rename the Group to something like, "The X-men" after that famous group
    of mis understood and often maligned good guyz with those extraordinary
    powers... Hmmm X-men I kinda like it..... but I once again digress.

    So we regroup at the summit and head up Centennial.  Kent and
    Jay-Z are un at the front and I am just kinda hanging out taking it
    easy.   Geoff is climbing really well and at one point on the
    climb he just walks away from me.  Dave is struggling a bit and
    Jerry is holding his own.   I decided to see if I can reel in
    Kent and Jay-Z and after a bit of effort I catch them.  Well then
    the pace picked up slightly as we neared the summit when Kent unleashed
    a wicked sprint and I do not answer and Kent gets the KOM points on
    that on.

    We regroup and make some clothing adjustments and head on.  Nice
    descent and more climbing.  We are not really working that well
    together yet but everyone is holding their own so it's all
    good.   Kent is really riding well and he is able to snag
    some more KOM points on this one and another while nipping Geoff near a
    summit.  I should note that Geoff has new wheels and he is
    climbing much better (You have been warned).

    Finally the last descent towards Binghanhill road and we are
    flying.  I hit 51.5 mph on that one.  Yeah baby! that's what
    life is about.   Dave was leading this one on the way to
    Binghamhill and we needed to reel him in, lest he get some un-earned
    KOM points and that just wouldn't be right and I am sure that he
    wouldn't have wanted the KOM points just handed to him.  
    Now he is caught and  it's Kent and Jayz, myself and Geoff neat
    the front.   Now I kinda dropped back for a bit and it looked
    like Kent was going for the points and I said to myself, "Hmmm, 
    I  need to re assert some authority here" and I decided to re
    engage!    As I catch Kent and Jay-Z  I decide to
    sprint by and Kent answered the challenge, but was denied his
    prize,     I take this
    summit and keep going to the next faux summit just to serve some
    notice!   Felt good too!   but what was the
    price....

    Now Geoff bids us adieu as he has chores to do and for the rest of us
    it's on to the flats.   We head North and we are now working
    well together.   I chat with Jay-Z and find out that he is
    one of those ultra marathon runners!  Yep, we found us another
    mutant!   So the rest of the X-men continue on the flats
    taking fairly even pulls........

    We ride and ride and ride on the flats, trading pulls.  There is
    some wind out there and everyone seems to have pretty much figured out
    the Echelon thing.   At some points there is no real shoulder
    and we find ourselves guttered at points.....  We can see the
    rains over the mountains and we are reminded of a ride we did last year
    down 257 where the temp dropped 10+ degress in less than an hour! ..
    Anyway, Dave and Jerry and Jay-Z seem to be getting stronger as the
    ride progresses! Jerry takes some monster pulls into the wind and
    whatever the Gemini Training  guyz are doing for him, its really
    working! 

    After we cross 392 we head for the last climb of the day. Jay-Z heads
    to the front and drops all of us!  Yep,  he's got  some
    serious endurance!   At this point we stop to get some
    food.   After a bit we take off and head towards the Wallmart
    distribution center and route 5.  Kent bails when we reach route 5
    and we say our rolling goodbyes.  Dave is really riding well, and
    it's apparent that he's starting to find his form again.  
    Heading down route 5,  Dave is riding strong!  my legs are
    spent at this point.  Seems like Dave can't get enough of the
    front!   Jerry takes over the lead and makes another monster
    strong pull and this late in the ride!  It really caught my
    attention and I am sure if he keeps doing what he doing may be spanking
    all of us!

    Finally on the Kechter and Dave heads for home, Jerry and I head for
    home when we reach  Zeigler sending Jay-z on his way.  A good
    time was had by all, about 60 miles at 17.5  mph avg   (Special thanks to Jerry for the pics)

    Oh, as far as the KOM goes, this week goes to Kent as he was the "Man" on the Major climbs!