Wed Night Recap

Last night, a bit different circumstances.  We started off the ride up at the shop.  Greve had left the new kits at the shop so I was able to ride in the new duds.  XL vermarc bibs are tighter than large hincapie bibs fwiw. Made me think I should have gone to XXL, but they stretch a bit over time and hell the extra compression holds stuff in place and in theory helps blood flow in the quads.  right?  And they were just tight worn over tights, so on bare skin they're probably fine.

We rolled out with a bit larger group than normal, 7 rolled from the shop and we picked up Andrew and Mike Brier down at Waterman Circle when we actually finally made it there.

Greve's gotten skinny, and his regular regime of fancy compu-trainer riding hasn't slowed him down a bit.  Paul's on a tear, looking for a W before cashing in his upgrade points.  Derdowski has been riding much better since he stopped that running thing, and fresh off his weekend riding with his brother's he has been killing it.  Andrew is just a fucking lung, strong and steady and weighs NOTHING - BMI has to be in the teens, he's got some serious promise.  Brier is consistently strong, still has his odd distinctive pedaling style and decides which sprints he's going for independently of the goals of the ride, but when he shows up the pace is boosted a bit.


The start of the ride has some pretty shitty roads (Derdowski's Strava of the ride).  Newman is terrible.  It doesn't help that the first sprint line is after the totally bomb-cratered bridge at the reservoir.  BUT there is a good 200 yards maybe? 100? from there to the State line and good visibility and the road is fine after it.

At some point either there or before we got there Hans was bounced around a bit too much and got a bit dropped and we turned and disappeared.  I made the wrong assumption that he'd be able to hang with us and at least get out to the loop...  felt bad that he was left out there...  esp since it was my acceleration that might have sent him out on a nice solo ride.

Rolling up Paul said something to the fact that I wouldn't be winning any sprints today.  Great.  No pressure.  Or was that a threat, or a promise to make sure I didn't win.  Despite me posting the strava of the rides, and laying out the sprints (hell Solobreak probably knows where each sprint line is just from reading this, Il Bruce too), Paul is a west sider, this Mass territory is new for him and he had to rely on the rest of us id'ng the sprints.

Rolling out from the light, I wound up up front.  Again.  And unlike the previous week I wasn't starting off with the goal to set up Derdowski and Fox for the sprint at the state line, nope, I kind of wanted to see if I could hold off the sprint master Greve and speedy Paul by leading it out.

I hit the bumpy pot hole cratered bridge in the mid 20s, and as soon as I hit the other side I stood up and jumped the first time.  Ramped the speed way up and spun that gear up to a pretty decent clip, sat down, dropped the chain down a couple more cogs and dumped my feeble wattage allotment into the ancient Dura-Ace SPDs through my mt bike shoes.  I didn't look back.

Didn't dare.

But I could feel someone coming up.  It was Paul.  Uh Oh.  It was close, but I didn't have to do a bike throw to take the State line.  But wow I was f'n COOKED.  A week of a tweaked back and not sleeping and not riding and generally negativity piled on top of negativity (self inflicted mostly) not to mention being a bit dehydrated, I was surprised how much it took out of me.  But on the other side? Fuck I won the sprint.  That's good enough.  One out of five.  I was happy with that, and was ready to chill and enjoy riding with everyone.

I guess it was during that sprint that Hans got popped off the back.  Syl and Stacey managed to follow a bit and caught up to us as we turned onto Prospect.  And I was secretly grateful that we kind of rode in a relaxed fashion up to Prospect.  And then waited.  But before long, or right from the gun, I found myself on the front, f'n close to red-lining in the front as we rode up the steady rise to Broad.  It hurt.  A lot.

We double filed it down broad, Brier rolled off the front and went for the town line sprint, that i have been neutralizing on every ride, every time, no matter how many times I say it isn't a sprint line (very fast downhill into a slight rise -with Pine street coming up - we took it out).  We gave him some leash I guess, but kept the tempo up and caught him after the turn onto Pine.  I stayed out of the wind after the early efforts, it hurt climbing, and I had an ulterior motive for today.

Pine street sprint number 2. The KOM.  There were some good solid early accelerations for the first sprint, Derdowski jumped hard and Greve seemed to have aims on it so I just hitched to their train and let them duke it out, from my POV behind it looked like Derdowski timed it a bit better and took it but Greve called it a photo so Derdowksi offered old man gets it in a photo.  But with the KOM coming up, Andrew had made it to my wheel, Syl was there too and I encouraged Andrew to go for the sprint at the top, Syl dug too.  Andrew was pushing it but I could see maybe what I thought was a limit...  and I thought "fuck it" and I jumped hard...  a bit early.  Went flying past Andrew with enough speed to prevent him from latching on without massive effort and watts, but as the crest got closer i started to fade, got worried I might not be able to follow through with that acceleration, shit, dig dig, a quick look back and Andrew had upped his pace and was closing in... shit...

I found just enough to take Pine number two.  Sweet.  2/3.  That one was way way tough.  We regrouped a bit, Syl had dropped back to ride with Stacey, and what we thought was to bring them back.  Pace was moderate over around to Homestead, and eventually with the duo no where in sight (they actually kept going straight, Syl missed the turn onto Homestead) we cranked the pace back up.  And headed over to Rocky Hill.  Greve hit the front after the downhill and the order settled with me sitting second wheel on Greve and I have no idea how it set up behind.  Greves set the pace, and kept it pretty steady, not easy but reasonable, a pace that someone could easily roll around but for how long.  We hit the 500 meter mark and Greve started to fade a bit but there was no way i'm going around, yet.  Almost simultaneous with Greve flicking the elbow and moving to the left we got the call "Car Back!"  So, 300 yards or so to go, Greve just opened the door for me, I've got a car protecting the yellow line, fuck it, I'm going. So I dropped a cog and stood up and hit the afterburners.  Greve and the car successfully blocking the left side, so the only challenger would have to have come from my own wheel.  But no one was there.  By a long shot.  I followed the car up and around, the dude driving gunned it when I jumped, preventing me from getting any draft but he had to slam the brakes on for the turn where I usually wait for the attack so I caught up a bit there, and rolled through the line.  Despite the HR monitor being a bit flaky it was reading a believable 180 (more or less max) at the crest.

Three of four.

Yes.  Keeping track of sprint wins on a ride with friends is pretty lame.  Whatever.  I am, I'm taking whatever measure of success I can find and focusing on the positive.  Fuck the haters.  I know, it isn't a race, it doesn't matter, just training, who cares... blah blah blah. I'm aware of the lameness of my keeping track.

The final one, Hillside. A f'n doozie.  I wanted Andrew to do what he did with Burke and just go from the gun and keep it up.  He's ridden it enough to know the hill, and I knew it would be great for him if we could get him up and over there first.  So I talked with him a bit, urging him to attack that first rise and keep it steady to the top.

He did, then Paul counter-attacked, but not realizing the final hill wasn't until the 3rd big rise he blew a bit early.  Andrew kept the pace and only Brier was able to match it.  Paul and Derdowski managed to get together and follow the leading duo...  leaving Greve and me out the back.  Greve unleashed a pile of power there on the final pitch and I had nothing.  Nothing.  Legs were having none of it.  I was cooked.

Derdowski soft pedaled a bit on Pine until I caught up and without saying anything he lifted the pace so smoothly and by the left turn off of Pine we'd regrouped.

Brier rolled off in a pseudo sprint to catch another townline that we neutralize (very close after the turn and a downhill sprint), but that set up a chase and we drilled it.  I attacked, then Paul and Greve cranked the pace up and we rolled through at speed.  I gave a huge dig and cranked the speed into the mid-30s for a while, but a hair breath too long and I screwed up, pulled off with the flick of the elbow after I crossed the point of no-return.  Fuck.  I held onto the draft until we got over to the Track at the Wheeler School Farm. And Greve went to the front and kept the tempo, and the 5 meters grew to 10.  Right turn on walker and the gap grew to 15 meters...  through the bumpy slight uphill I knew I had to bridge, and I tried.

To no avail.

Fuck.

I got dropped on my own fucking ride.

So I put my head down, grabbed the invisible aero bars and cranked at my limit, which was just fast enough to keep the gap steady but not to pull them back in.  The hit 152 before I did and weren't there for a second before they scooted across in a break of traffic and motored over to West.

I get there and then what?

Traffic, steady stream, in both directions.  For what seemed like forever.

I did catch them just after they turned on to 152 and we rolled back to the shop.  Nice and mellow.

Cooked.  Totally fried.

A great ride.

If the TT actually does happen, it is starting to be a tough call between benefits.  This ride is a ton of fun, wicked hard, and short, and intense.  Not quite CX intense but pretty damn close.

The new kits are pretty sharp.  Dean did a kick ass job with the design.  I might even soften on the fredliness on wearing a white jersey with black shorts. Maybe.

Nothing like sitting and waiting at an Othrodontist appointment to have a chance to get it all written down.  As lame as it is to claim the overall for the ride, although getting dropped stings I did plenty of work at the beginning of the ride to be satisfied.  That and the legs were on fire going to bed.  Always a good sign.

I'd planned on getting a ride in this morning before the Ortho appt, but the rain changed plans.  It is just drizzling but I was not motivated to get out and ride in the rain, on the wet roads.  Just to ride...  it is the off season...  i'm okay with it.

Heddwch
G