POW!

The weekend was full of cycling and I loved it. I got over 115 miles for the two days and felt great. Nice that the wife didn't mind so much, especially since I got home sunday before she even got out of bed. Just glad I was able to get to bed early enough to have enough zzz's before riding. I decided to skip monday's ride and recoup from the previous week, but the running bug got to me. So I went out that evening and put in a quick 2.5. Just enough to really get you sweaty.

The morning was no different. Talk about sweating. I was glad I had 3 water bottles for the ride. We had a nice little tailwind on the way out and the group wasn't too large. I sat at the back until going through the dip when I almost flew off the path. Just before the climb on the other side there is a small hump and you go over at an angle. Well if you are leaning too much, like I usually do, your backend gets airborn and scares the bejezzus out of you. Well today I had to do everything I could to stay on the path and thankfully I did and didn't cause anyone to crash behind me. A small gap formed as I was collecting myself after the near grassy experience. I got back on and then found myself heading toward the front rapidly. Woo, what's going on here? I am just maintaining pace and everyone else is dropping off? I guess so. Then I saw what was happening up front. Riders were starting to attack. The group did well and didn't panic. Just maintained pace and slowly brought back each escapee. But as soon as he was passed another would attack. Well if this keeps up I will be up there soon. Sure enough I was, but I really didn't attack, I just maintained 27, what 27! I didn't even realize we were going that fast. I kept an eye on the shadow I was casting and nothing was behind me. No help, so just keep going for as long as you can. As I neared the Luling bridge I said this is probably it for me. Looked back and still had about 50 meters but I am dying here. So I drop a couple of cogs and stand up waiting to be swept up by the group. Didn't do so bad as I was able to maintain 5th wheel and then eventually got to the front again before we turned for home. I felt pretty satisfied as we had left everyone strung out along the levee.

Heading for home was much more civil until POW! Holy shit was someone shot. John's tire blew big time. He ended up with a hole in the sidewall. Luckily Todd used an old race number of Randy's and placed it between the tube and tire. Good ole tyvek. That stuff is great in the winter for a chest warmer. We got started back up after leaving a pool of sweat on the levee and went at a very civilized pace 20-21. We gradually picked it up and caught up to a few guys that didn't wait but soft pedalled while the flat was being fixed. Then things got nasty. We had a little headwind and the pace continued to grow. 22-23 we had 6, 23-24 we had 4, 24-25 we had 2. Where is everyone? Finally Rob comes around but now we are doing 26 into the wind. Ouch, but at least there were 3 of us. We had a tight little rotation working and got a huge gap on the rest. I finally had enough when we reached the Huey P and shut myself down. Did I mention it was hot? Whew!