Headed out for a warmup ride yesterday at about 5:00pm and quickly bumped into Super Saul as he was heading home from work on his fixie. I rode with him so that I could get the lowdown on his experience racing in the DK200, sounds like he had a blast. Big gravel, a couple wrong turns, and getting charged by a cow. Too cool. I left his place at around 5:20 or so to continue getting my legs ready.
For the last couple of weeks, I feel like I am not getting in enough warmup before the group ride starts. I usually get in between 30-60 minutes, which should be plenty of time, plus I get a couple hill repeats and/or a some sprint intervals in. Sometimes the legs are feeling really snappy at this point but, lately they still do not want to play. Last night was one of those nights. As we rolled through town heading for Union Rd. in a nice little group of around 17 riders, I just could net get comfy. We made it to Union and then headed South to 27th Street where we made a right and started heading out of town. I rolled off the front of the group to get over to the side of the road figuring that someone else would come around and the rotation would commence but instead I was greeted with about 14 separate but, quick attacks and I was already in no-man's-land. I motored on keeping the main group in my sight until the end of 27th Street where everyone slowed for a regrouping. After a couple of minutes we proceeded South towards Dike at a comfortable pace with your's truly sitting on front. I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for the rotation to come around but it never did...well until the attacks came for the sprint about 1 mile North of Dike. I started to go and then decided to save the energy for later on. A group of five went for the sprint and then we rolled through Dike before continuing South into the rolling hills.
I was again on the front getting my resistance workout in while riding into the SW headwind with Bullerman. The two of us sat up there forever before Doug and Scott came around on an attack with a few straglers on their tail. I opted out of the chase since there was absolutely no organization with the draft line. It was probably about a mile down the road before J. Fry spoke up and basically forced everyone into a draft rotation, which I was very thankful for. Thanks Fry!!! It helped to get things back on track and Bullerman and I quickly rode off of the front as we worked flawlessly together to reel in the two escappees. We came pretty close to getting that done but ran out of road before we made the left turn to head East to Hudson along the Zanetta blacktop.
This section is marked with a couple of large hills and some wide open flat sections that leave you right out in the wind. Cresting the first hill, I was on front with Scott as we lead the group at about 17 mph or so and I waited for it to explode. Nothing was happening and I slowly made my way to the back to sit in the draft for a while since the rotation seemed to be working pretty well. As we were heading up the second large hill, Jeremy and I were discussing how the rotation started to fall apart and the organization of the group almost completely collapsed as we started uphill. So I though to myself, "W.W.K.D.?" (What Would
Kerkove Do?) Well, he would attack right here but, I am by no mean's a climber so I probably wouldn't last long. Oh well, give it a shot. I came out of the group and rode over the hill, crested, rode down the other side and made it quite a ways down the flat section before a group of twelve or so came by and I hopped on back. Shortly there after someone else decided to attack....J. Fry, go figure. Good on ya Mate!!! A small fairly organized group chased him back down ( he actually sat up but after his DK200 performance I don't blame him). The group then stayed really organized after that and the last three miles or so to Hudson went really well with different guys attacking here and there and the pace staying up in the 30ish mph area. Different times off the front were Doug E., Houlihan, Scott, and Bullerman. Eventually we were getting the group chiseled down to only about five or six and we tried to pull back Doug E. once again. He held it off the front to the edge of town for the final burst of the evening.
I really felt great by the end of the night and wanted to keep going for a while but, I need to get the jelly feeling out of my legs. Hopefully I can get my warmups to feel a little better real soon so that I am not shelled off the back right away and forced to chase although, chasing definitely has it's motivating factor. I guess that I would rather be getting chased than doing the chasing. ;-) I really would like to see this type of group show up more often. If we can get 15 or so riders there on a consistent basis so that everyone is feeling comfortable in the group, I think that the game could really reach a new level of fun.
As far as racing for 2008 goes, I have had quite a few questions about this and I am planning on coming out to play for the Clear Lake crit and road race on July 12th and 13th. I'd love to get something else in before that sometime so maybe sooner but right now it is looking like mid-July. My primary focus is going to be cyclocross this year so not huge worries about other things...yet.