mutant325's Xanga Site

← Previous Post

Sunday again and my legs are tired. I had hoped to have recover
from the earlier weeks efforts but it was not to be. In any case I
was happy to have others with tired legs so that my suffering would not
be compounded.... but I digress So there is a good turn out
today, Paul (welcome back), Glenn(Welcome back), Dave, Jerry, Kevin
(New Face),Ron and Kent.

It's cold out and we decide to check ourselves when we get Binghanhill
road to see if we really want to do Rist. The group agrees and we
are off. Nice Leisurely ride down horsetooth and then onto the
1st hogback. I want no part of any KOM melees today and I am
hoping to hangout with the Lantern Rouge and save my legs. It
always gets me when folks proclaim how tired there legs are, whatever
and then when it comes time to either suffer or not, they always seem
to find some energy to waste. Me, well I am not proud so on this
climb I take the rear, making just enough Horsepower to get the job
done.   I would say comfortably but my legs were telling me
to turn around and go home, but I just ignored them hoping my legs
would come good. Well, I pretty much knew that wasn't going to happen
since I pretty much burned them up on Friday on the Friday Flyer ride
which started fast and I didn't get a proper warm up which, for me
spells bad news....(Mental Note, show up for that ride with the FTL
drive already spooled up and be prepared to jump).... but I
digress. So I hang out in the a back with Dave, who had 240
miles in his legs from last week and Glenn who had spent way too much
time at sea level sans bike and with a few days efforts already there.
Ron and Kevin are up front going for the KOM points which Ron won
handily, and without Peter or Bob to keep him honest, pretty much had
his way on all of the hills.

So we regroup up top and life is good. Jerry is riding really
strong, despite the fact he had done 90 miles the day before!!
Paul is also riding well, and it's like he had never left.
Anyway, Ron spanks us up the next hill and I am hanging out near the
back with Dave carrying the Lantern Rouge. I am thinking that I
should go home now, but I will press on and hope things get easier.

The next hills go pretty much the same with Ron just sprinting up them
and showing us that we need not challenge him today. Maybe, it's
like my brothers Gorilla theory at work here and when the new males
show up, the pecking order must be shown and the "Silverback"
Determined.   Well, there was no contest today, and I might
as well say in now, that Ron is KOM winner today.

It's kinda cold out and this with my weak legs made for some agonizing
climbing. I prayed that we would not decide to climb Rist today
cause I might have had to have done the old, "Exit Stage Left thing"
and gone home on an easy flat recovery ride, which is what I should
have been doing.....

So we do Binghanhill and decide to do the flats. Yes, a chance to
recover. Well once on the flats we are riding fairly well
together, but there are lots of surges in the pack, with some closing
gaps quickly etc. I should note that Dave almost went down right
before the turn to Binghamhill road as something happened to slow the
group too fast. I didn't notice it cause I was probably off
the back, but this didn't bode well for Dave's mood, especially with
240 miles in ones legs.

On to the flats and the pace is going up and down with these micro
surges. Probably with fresher legs these would have been of no
concern, but when one is tired, the suck and my legs are just
complaning and don't appreciate it in the lest. Like I said
though, I was tired so any little extra effort is greatly
noticed. In any case we able on with everyone sharing the
load.

After a bit Paul decides to head back as he has not done much more that
10 mile rides. A wise choice, one the I probably should have done
to aid in my recovery.   We march on and then this Red Neck
buzzes us with his horn a blaring. What an Idiot. It's
times like this I wish I had an M16 so I could have the final laugh.
Yeah I would go to jail but for the brief moment I would feel good and
could probably plead temporary insanity, not to mention this would help
harden my "Bad Boy" image. In any case we are un fazed and
continue towards owl canyon.

Finally we make the right hander and we are heading West.
At some point Jerry and Kevin were feeling pretty good and got off the
front for bit while the rest of us chased. Well we weren't really
chasing, since I am sure that Ron could have run them down and dragged
us up there, but I not sure we could have all made it on his wheel in
tact. So we just let them hang out for a bit until they decided
to come back and help us out....

Finally it's time to head south, Yeah. and there is a horrible cross
wind. Ron is a the front when I first noticed this and we were
all guttered.
We got organized into an echelon but it
wasn't easy. It's pretty clear that we have lost some of our
skills from spending so much time in the hills. It's probably
time to work more on this stuff, but I am too tired today to organize
much of anything. The Idea here is that no-one should have to
suggest an echelon or anything, it should just happen cause everyone
has the knowledge of cycling to just do this.

So,. let me digress a little bit. It's interesting that Dave just wrote
this nice little piece on riding in the wind which should have primed
everyone to be more cognizant of how to ride better in such
conditions. Perhaps some terms need to be defined, like
"Guttered". Guttered means your the guy in line that can't get into
the echelon and is forced to fend form himself. Got it. Now
this might be a good time to ramble about tactics etc. Guttering
is a good way to may ones breakaway more effective if your opponents
can't get a good draft and are forced to work.
In our friendly little group it's a bad thing, but if you are racing or
trying to drop some one, you might use this to your
advantage.   Remember, it's not the strongest rider that
wins, it's the smartest.   In any case, good drafting tools
are a must for riders that are as strong as those in our
group.   So as long as I am digressing, there was a least one
person in the group closing gaps in pace line wa too quickly!! this
causes that accordian effect and the last guy has to work really hard
to stay on! Please folks, if a gap opens up, just close it
slowly. Now there is a time and a place for closing gaps
quiickly, and thats when you are racing or only give rats ass about
yourself. Then you can do this to make the others behind you
suffer. The best way to hurt
some boyz is when you come to a corner where folks usually slow abit,
is to accelerate hard! This causes a radical accordian effect and
will eventually shell the riders behind you. Not a good thing to
do in our friendly group but a useful tactic. Sometimes, I watch some
of the folks in the group and it;s like they found Papa new rifle and
just want to brandish it about abit just to see what the effect
is....   Point being, boyz and girlz, your actions or lack of
will have an effect on the group, Do you know what the effect of yours
are?

Maybe that's enough rambling for now, but since this is a flat ride and
everyone is tired I might as well write about something more than, "We
pedaled and pedaled and it was flat" ...
So back to my rambling, I am thinking that we probably need to do
some more drills and I can remember some fun ones that I did in my
youth.   I liked(Hated at the time) the chasing drills where
the team was spit into teams, and let the games begin. More on that
later one of these Sundays.

Well, one more final digression. I am thinking that some of us should go
racing. Maybe the Mead series. If I were a coach, I would
pick, Bob, Ron, Kevin, Brent, Dave, Kent, Shannon, Jerry, Chris, JZ
(Sorry if your name isn't here, might be an oversight) as some of the
recent standouts that might enjoy some additional suffering, besides,
we got jerseys might as well use um... Yeah, baby, wouldn't it be cool
to put the spank on some of the local Cat IV boys!!! .... I have
a dream, that one day......

Ok, So back to the ride. After we go back onto Timberline,
we just chilled and took it easy. I got to chat with Kevin a bit
more. Dave was in a rhytm up the road and I am sure wanted to get
home and rest those sore dogs.

As for the stats, probably about 50 miles at 16mph. About the
same avg that we do if we do a hillier ride. Anyway, I hope everyone
had a good time or suffered, depending on what you enjoy. (Special thanks to Jerry for the pics)

So just a reminder to come out on Friday an do Dave's Friday Flyer
Ride. You guys can let it hang out abit and test your mettle on a
drop ride that's fast but not as hard core as say the OVAL. I
can't wait until I get my legs back!