The group road rides have been pretty interesting so far this year. The numbers of participants seems to be stuck in the 6-9 range quite lately with last night being no exception. Eight people showed up for the ride which left from behind
Bike Tech at 6:00pm sharp. We headed West on 2nd street then 4th street to the edge of town where we turned South on Union Rd. to combat the SSW wind on our way to Dike. Heading West on 27th street saw the pace slowly working it's way up and watching one rider at a time go off the back. It did not take long until it was J. "the Twinkie" Fry and Doug pulling away from Bullerman and myself a bit. They did not get too far away but, it was enough that we were not reeling them back. Turning South towards Dike saw a very relaxed pace almost all the way to town so it was inevitable that there would be a large effort from there all the way to Hudson. Fry actually picked up the pace as he headed through Dike and had about a 400 meter leadout before we even left town. Engstrom, Bullerman, and I began to chase, noticing that the other four riders all went back home, while continuing South over the rolling hills towards Reinbeck. The three of us were working pretty good together but, we still were not reeling in the the Twinkie. As we created the final hill before making our turn to head West towards Hudson, I commented to Engstrom that Fry was not slowing down.
We continued on each taking our turn on the front and cruising right along down the Zaneta blacktop and eventually Engstrom oppped off the back. Bullerman and I kept chasing and it seemed that we would start to reel the Twinkie in for a little bit but, crest the next hill and he was gone again. Crazy. Bullerman and I almost dropped each other a couple of times during our chasing duties although, we did stay together all the way to Hudson.
Fry was riding very well last night and actually has been all year. He has taken over the local duties of attacking all the time and forcing the group to work hard throughout the ride. Nice work Fry.
Sure would be nice to see a few more faces show up around here. We have had groups in the 15-20 range before and they are a lot of fun to be part of. When the group inevitably breaks apart it seem that no one is left out there by themselves and everyone gets a great ride in.
Looks like it should be another good stage in
the Giro again today. I can't say that I have been disappointed at all during the race so far. Yesterday's break away stayed away until the finish to bring some fresh faces to the front and shake up the GC a bit. Be sure to check it out.
Read the complete post at http://carlosdajackal.blogspot.com/2008/05/attack-of-twinkie.html