What a great time! We had a wonderful ride west of town repeating the classic from last winter. The roads were extremely different in comparison to last December, they were dry and fast. John R., Bernie, and I rode from the shop and headed out to the course. A perfect day for goofing off in the country.
As we rode the start we chatted and recited poetry. It was very pleasant but you could tell that we were preparing for the ride ahead! When we got to town Dave H. was waiting for us and soon the other riders were pulling in. At the start we had 7 riders for the neutral lap. Evan put on overalls and a flannel shirt as he said to keep the Prairie in Prairie Roubaix. It was very funny and there will be pictures.
I was glad that I rode the "Flying Dutchman," because the roads were very fast. I put on 700x25 tires. (Please no comments on tires, thank you) My old steel road bike felt great. I would later get very frustrated and said words that I shouldn't say when my rear derailleur started to malfunction. Thanks to the field for waiting for me each time this happened. What a bummer! But since the field did wait I really shouldn't have said all those awful words!
Now for the race itself. You will hear different accounts but here is mine...
As we were getting ready to go (going down the road to relieve ourselves) Dave got the message that Bernie had taken off so Dave went after him on a full sprint... No one saw him leave. After waiting a while we started to look for Dave and finally figured the only explanation was that he was up the road, so we took off. He was riding hard because we never did see him again.
So we started racing the three laps in hopes that we might see Dave. The first lap was pretty even. Dan put in a couple of surges to see where people were at and the four of us responded. The rest of the lap was very congenial as we rode and chatted the rest of the lap.
The second lap would see a lot of the same kind of racing. We figured we were all at about the same place and pretty much rode an even lap with out to much action. We did pass Mike and he told us that Dave was five minutes up on us, so we at least knew where he was. At the end of the second lap John flatted. We slowed down to discuss what we should do, wait or go. We sat and discussed it for a little bit, 5 minutes maybe... wait, where is Dave? Is he a part of this or not? This group did not seemed concerned... and so here is the controversy...
The third lap, the bell lap. We knew that it was going to happen here. I felt very good at this point and I didn't know how the others were doing. We started the lap together. I was very tempted to put in an attack right away but knew that it was too far. I surged and all responded. We were all in the same boat and we were riding south together again. My rear derailleur started to malfunction.
As we headed north back to the finish I started to think about putting in some attacks. Dan slowly ramped up the speed and once we were within about 4 miles I began to put in small attacks. I would get about 100 meters and then the guys would reel me in. I did this a few times, catch my breath and go again. I had just read about Bernard Hinault the night before and he says if you can breathe you should attack. On the last attack with 2 miles to go Dan bridged and the others didn't. Dan is a new Loon and he played the perfect teammate as he told me to sit in and he brought me to the line! What a great addition to our team... not to mention he is SUPER strong and could have wasted us all... that takes away a bit of this controversy... HA!
Dave was back at the parking lot when we got in and had puked in his efforts to catch Bernie's double... None of us worked that hard!
Dan also brought Guinness for all of us. With this being St. Patrick's Day even the Priest who was walking his dog around us had a slight smile on his face and we were tempted to offer him a stout.
Final Podium: 1. Dave H. 2. Neil E. 3. Dan C.
Bernie mixed me up a bottle of Hammer fuel and I have to say it was great! I simply kept sipping at it all day and I never felt the hunger I usually do at the end of a ride. Thanks Bernie!
No comments:
Post a Comment