Sometimes you hit the bar ...

The people whose names I know, who were there:
Kent, Steve Jarrett, Matt Landen, Mark Brackenberry, Count Chocula, Bernardo, Pete Duryea

Names of people I know who were there that I had not seen for at least 2 years:
Dan Hanson, Joe Savoie.

Names of people I know who were notably absent:
Ellis, Gregg, Andrew, Gary, Shim

Names of people I know who are scared to ride and probably have hair on their legs:
Mike Munson, Jon Randell – but especially Jon. I’m just giving crap to Mike, whose legs are, most likely, naturally hairless.

The ride went much better for me than last week. On the Highway 36 section, I got dropped only slightly (last week I was spectacularly dropped).
On the rolling trace section, there was this really insane person, who I believe is named Matt Landen, who was pushing the pace (or at least that’s how it felt to me). I sucked his wheel for a while waiting for someone else to get up there. No one came. I can’t handle the stress – So I got out and pulled for a while, trying (unsuccessfully) to maintain the speed of this Matt person. Now I’m waiting for someone to take over. and waiting. and, uh waiting … I check behind me and I’ve dropped the whole group.

Just kidding.

So nobody comes around for what seems like 5 minutes, but was probably 15 seconds. Then here comes that Matt guy again. Jeez. I’d like to say we were going such and such a speed, but all I could look at was his back wheel. I’m also glad I wasn’t wearing a heart rate monitor, because if I’d seen my heart rate, I would have known that I can’t really go that hard and slowed down. Heart rate monitors suck. There, I said it. I think they’re good for recovery, but otherwise …

Normally, I get dropped on this section (the trace rollers), So I figured I might as well get a good workout in now rather than try to hang on at the back and get dropped anyway.
Eventually Matt sat up, and I was in front again. I pulled for a while (around 2 seconds or so) and dropped back myself. I tried to latch on to the last guy in the group (Bernardo), but no. I fell back. Then Matt dropped off the group. Then Bernardo. Then this big guy was coming toward me (from behind). He caught up to me and we traded pulls. We caught up to this Matt character, who was just cruising now and didn’t feel like joining us hairy-legged freds. Actually, I think the other fella was clean-shaven, but he was big (for a cyclist), bigger than me even. We tried to catch up to Bernardo before the big downhill to Highway 75, but nope. When we got to the gas station, I realized my riding buddy was none other than Joe Savoie. Wow, I haven’t seen that guy in a while. Cool.

The ride back was pretty uneventful, except for Dan Hanson recognizing me. Wow, I haven’t seen that guy in a while. Cool.

Summary: My legs are at their strongest this year. Close to last year, but not quite. I should really do well on the U.P. lunch rides now, though. Yes!

I think the one thing that really stands out about this ride was the number of hecklers. The skate park is always a good place to hear dope-induced, slow speaking, monotone heckles. Last night’s was something like, “wow, are you guys gonna be in the Tour-day-Fraunce?”

“Wow, are you guys gonna be in drug-rehab?”