The Semi started out leading the first pull. I didn't want to start out in front because most of the other riders demand a warm up period. I didn't want to waste my pull warming up when I could be assaulting my 10 minute best mark. Besides, I don't get it. Most of us rode our bikes there. Why do we need a warm up? Anyway, the Semi does his thing and I'm up. This is my one shot. Everyone is fresh and once we get off Millhopper road we go double paceline and I'll be held back by some laggard. So I start kicking it. I don't want to go too fast and burn out and/ or drop people. So I keep it right around 235 watts. On the downhill portions I had to go into Bachman Turner Overdrive in the hardest gear to keep the watts up. 10 minutes came and went and I had a new watts record of 241w.
It soon became apparent that the B-17's were mainly just a bunch of wheel slurpers. Without Boss Hogg or the Dad there was no other rider to take long turns at the front. It was a good opportunity to get lots of time pulling. Eventually we came to the big incline that is Chestnut Hill. I figured I should go for it and try to knock off some of my shorter watts marks. I was in perfect position. The old guy and San Diego were in front and I was right behind them. I waited and as soon as the incline kicked in I rose out of the saddle and took off. No one followed and I was just gone. At one point I was going over 25mph up this hill. Later back home I saw that I set new marks for 30 sec as well as 1 and 2 minutes. I made it to the top and I was pretty tired.
I know I've been blowing my own horn a lot and let me emphasize that I'm sure there are hundreds of people in town that are way better than me at this. I'm middle aged, I've only been riding a couple of years and I don't have a lot of muscle mass to quickly push the crazy hard gears. But in the moment I was feeling good.
Anyway the cool thing about making it over the hill first is I'm in front down CR 241. Then someone else can pull the first part of Millhopper Rd and I'm a little rested for the final assault starting on the I-75 over pass hill. Leave it to sneaky Skeletor though to coast by me while I was waiting for the group to reconstitute. Dude didn't even pull all of CR 241. So now we are on Millhopper. I'm back up front. I'm getting really tired but I'm still cranking along. We get to the I-75 hill and I give it all I've got. The last 5 minutes I've averaged over 250 watts which is good for me at this point in the ride. Just to put that in perspective that's what riders in the Tour de France do for like 5 hours when they are just chilling back in the draft.
I give up the lead and see that there are just 3 dudes remaining, Publix and 2 of the wheel sucking B17's. A B17 was right behind me and is obviously startled to now be in front. Yeah, it's go time mother bleeper.
He quickly relinquishes the lead as does his comrade. Publix, goes down and back up a hill and gives up the lead. So within the span of 3 people I had all of 3 minutes rest and now I'm back in the front, Seriously? Somehow I blast out another 5 minutes averaging around 22 mph then I hear this high pitched noise coming from my bike. Fearing a flat I drop back. At this point we are down to just 2 other riders. I ascertain that it's not a flat but rather some leaves caught by my chain. I pull it out but due to the delay and general fatigue I can't reattach to the others and get dropped with 2 miles to go.
Which sucked because I had worked pretty hard during the ride, pulling at the front for over a third of it. Still it was a really good ride. I felt pretty strong throughout and the feedback from the power meter helps big time. Did I mention that my new orange Molteni wool jersey arrived yesterday?
No static at all... going up Chestnut Hill
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