As my racing season draws near, I can't help but wonder if I will be ready. Bakers Dozen is in 3 weeks and the Cohutta 100 is in 4. I have been working hard, and feel like I should be ready, but you never know.
If Saturday was any indication, I should relax a little. A few of us organized a group to do the Icicle Metric Century, or 65 miles of nice rolling terrain. My goal for the day was to ride a steady tempo and keep our group together. It seemed to work out well. We had a strong consistent effort from everyone. Well almost everyone. After the food stop we passed a small group of guys that decided to jump in with us. Normally no big deal, except these guys, otherwise known as the Color Guard, didn't do the whole working with the rest of the group thing very well. This one clown would sit in the group, then surge over a little hill first only to drift right back to the group. Finally Paul called him out and told if he was going to go to the front he should take a pull. I was on the front at the time and the clown was riding next to me. There was a slight head wind and I don't think he was happy to be on the front. To make it worse, I may have upped the tempo a bit, because I saw him drifting back after only a few seconds on the front.
As we rolled into Landenburg, which is the hilly part of the ride, we saw a little less of these guys trying to come to the front. I guess the longer climbs were a bit too much for them. While re-grouping and waiting for a pee break, they came by us again. Paul wasted no time in letting them know they didn't belong on bikes let alone in our group.
The clown rolled by us on London Tract Rd, Leo would have none of this, and went after him. I couldn't let Leo go alone so I bridged up. We quickly dropped the clown. I Got a bit of a gap on Leo, so after I crossed 896 I turned around to meet up the the rest. Here came the clown and his buddies. I turned around and passed them again for good measure. I think they got the hint. We ended up with a 3rd flat so we didn't see them again. It was a shame because we were going to congratulate them on there win.
Lunch after was good and the convesation was stellar. Thanks to all for coming out and helping male this the best Icicle ride ever. It's a shame Peaches missed most of it...
No ride yesterday, I went to the Point to Point With Rachael. the weather was ugly in the morning, but it turned into a beautiful day. I was tempted to ride in the afternoon, but I think I hade a few too many at that point.
Cheers,
Buddy
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