First Smackdown of 2014 in the books

First effort in the legs since, probably Day 1 Supercup Cross. Day 2 in NY wasn't an effort, more of a just ride in circles.  Definitely should have just stayed in Bed at the Hotel until it was warmer than single digits. Car would have been happier starting and I could have avoided that embarassment and maybe not have been so tired I didn't see the tree and wouldn't have crashed and might have been able to race Sterling and NBX.

But hey. At that moment, getting out of bed seemed to be the right thing to do. Hindsight eh?


That crash lead into over a month off the bike. I got on it a few times here and there, but really not much. traveling and all that. Toss in a few runs here and there though but nothing longer than 20-25 minutes. The runs sort of aerobically taxing but certainly not long and not repeated efforts and with such different muscle groups as to be hard to compare and translate into a 25 mile smackdown ride.

Weather's been shit too. But with the time change and the beautiful forecast for Tuesday I had to start the ride up.  Not quite enough daylight to start with Mark Nicholson's original ride that goes out west so we did the Wed night Baby-Smackdown route on Tuesday.

Smallish group but a good mix of people who are always in shape (Andrew and Myles) some who've been training (Syl and Stevey M and the kid on the Trek in white Capo) and then me and Justin neither of use motivated or training, and Kyle. Who knows what Kyles program is other than to have fun and enjoy the bike and that's all good.  Greg was there too on his beautiful Di2 BMC machine.  Myles at least brought his CX bike even if it did have taller roadish gears on it. Leaving me with a 46 to battle with the 50s and 53s.

From the outset there are rules.  Group rides have to have rules. No rules and it doesn't work.  First rule is no town line sprints.  the biggest reason is the one on Jacob/Broad is after a fast downhill with shitty pavement neat the sprint point and the curves mean it is a great one to contest if you have 2 or 3 other riders with you but in a larger group? Not good, we've had too many close calls and one rider go down in spectacular fashion.  Sprint lines on this ride are at the top of the rises or climbs.
Except.

Except the first state line sprint.

But there are rules for that one too.  If there are cars parked on the side of the road between the bridge and the state line sign there is no sprint.  It comes after a stop light. rarely does the group make the green light. So it is a standing start but no one knows if it is safe to sprint until you are on the slight decline down to the bridge looking at the sprint.  it is about 400 meters from the bridge to the sign and the line.

Someone is good at getting clipped in from a stop.  Someone who is on a cross bike.  Aka me. There are a few guys who've done a CX race or two in the group, but oddly or maybe it is calculated, I wind up on the front after stops. So i head off towards the bridge and hope that there is a car in the lane.

There isn't.

Okay...  I've got zero feedback on the bars. Riding by feel alone.  I lift the pace slightly, and hold it. The sun behind us casts long shawdows and I can see heads moving around and positioning themselves for the rough pavement over the bridge. Then I head a clunk clunk...  So i lift the cadence... and hear another clunk clunk... and i drop into the drops...  One head, maybe two cast a long shadow and they start getting closer. So i ramp it up... winding it up...  from looking at the strava app recorded data i ramped it up to about 33 or so and wound up holding that, I had to lift the pace to hold of Justin's challenge but in the end I lead it out and still managed to out sprint J-man on his open tubular carbon Roval wheels bolted to his S-works Tarmac (I think it is aT not a V but who knows), the lanky morse on his roboCdale was right there though.

Kind of surprised me but it hurt and wasn't the worst feeling. But made me wonder how many more matches I had left. Going into the ride I was figuring I'd get shelled somewhere on Pine like I usually do. Like the time I waited for Derdowski and Fahringer only drag them halfway up pine, and AD bagged it and BF dropped me pretty much at the same point.

Rolled out and it was pretty good.  Group together but we hit the turn onto Prospect and a few started the turn then yelled "CAR LEFT" fuuuck. Most everyone got turned leaving me and Steve with a foot down and Andrew driving the pace like no one was off the back.  So well...  I worked hard until Steve caught back up to me and it was all i could do to suck his wheel back to the group. Greg and Kyle got gapped by the pace set up front on that group. By the time we turned left I was already cooked. But managed to recover a little bit as we made the left onto Pine.

J-man wound up in the front and he set a SLOW pace. And no one upped it. I was happy with that. Then Andrew went to the front. Oh Boy. I managed to hang on to the lead couple wheels when Andrew jumped for the Salisbury sign and took that sprint line and kept going. He and the kid on the Trek and Steve took off, I was dragging Myles and Syl and had to flick an elbow after we passed Hillside.

Myles came around and then Syl came around him.  The front three were a good bit up the road at that point and I was well off the back of Syl and Myles. But I dug down and caught back onto Myles who had latched onto Syl's wheel.  And we caught the others on Homestead. I went to the front a bit there and kept the pace high until we got to the tree where the guy died when his Cervelo failed, and then I rolled back and sat on. Actually kind of held on.

Rolled onto Rocky Hill, and we started driving hard. Then a truck spooked the leaders and we had a bit of a close call when my reaction to the reaction in front of me almost took Syl out but we survived.  And the pace was driven pretty well.  The pace wasn't brutal but we weren't poking along. And it got to the point and I thought wtf I'm here might as well give it a try and I jumped early.  Andrew latched on my wheel and started coming along side as we got to the top and it was all i could do to hold him off. But that was the last match. I was cooked.  We turned onto Hillside and they upped the pace slightly and I couldn't match it at all.

And watched them all ride off. One of my slower times up Hillside. It was not pretty. I still rode at my max the rest of the way, which saddly was not fast but hey, first ride in a long time I guess it wasn't terrible.  Taking a few sprints and making a few others work i guess is enough take home for me, esp considering I dragged the trailer on Monday and before the ride and after the ride and then Today I hitched it up again too. even loaded it up with a significant pile of weight on the way in. Not enough to just drag a loaded trailer a mile or two home. Might as well load it after a mile or two so I have a whole day of killing my legs.  After killing my legs yesterday.

We'll see what next week brings both weather and smackdown wise.

Season doesn't start till september though right? I've got time...  patience...  but can't dally anymore. Not in my 20s, can't afford to get any slower than I am now, which is pretty damn slow... need to get some longer miles in too. Hoping Monday works out.  We'll see...

At least the ride home after the ride was with a nice tailwind and a gorgeous sunset...

fod yn rhyfeddol
G