Beat Down, Beat Up

I started on Thursday trying to rally the guys for a Saturday ride and then we usually wait and see if Diane organizes something with the Brewcrew, although she calls them her peeps. Much to my surprise there was the ole switch-a-roo on me and Diane tells her peeps that they were doing my route. The email kind of made it sound like I was the ride leader, but I quickly put out my disclaimers that I cannot be trusted to guide the group.

Since I am ADD I sometimes lose focus and break out for an early sprint. That happened early in the ride when Rick looks over at me and says, "this is a good place to stretch the legs." I wasn't sure for a millisecond what he was suggesting, but I saw his move as he broke out of the group and opened up the supercharger. I then got the drift and put on my best impression of Mark Cavendish (minus a whole lot) to catch up to Rick. We forged ahead and I can say Rick that I burned a lot of matches in that early effort that cost me later, but it was a lot of fun. Thanks for the encouragement.

Two hours into the 62 mile ride we did a store stop, but after the store stop we hit some hard head winds. Rick forged ahead and as I saw him going Keith Bolton, Gary Quellet and me wanted badly to catch him, but as usual Rick was just too strong for us. A few more miles Alan Pilling flies by us like he was just warming up, Gary pushes forward with impressive speed and then the whole gang catches me and Keith Bolton. I was thinking like Keith that I was seriously going to hit the wall and go no further, but we held on and stayed with the group hiding in the back and trying to get a little relief from the hard head wind. Diane and her peeps (Brewcrew) are a very impressive and strong bunch to ride with in my opinion. A guy like me has to put in a lot of intense training just to hang with this group. Nancy has amazing power. The last several rides she looked like she had it on cruise control and was right up there in the front doing her share of the pulls along with Peter. Margaret was holding on very good considering I heard she had a knee issue.

They are an amazing bunch of cyclists....oops...I think I already said that. I don't know if Jamie is planning a take over of the group because Diane mentioned something about her "peeps" becoming "peep." Maybe Jamie will lead the ride next weekend, weather permitting. Since we did several lately using the same roads from White up the Fairmont area, I was thinking about something going over toward Kingston and Barnsley. I guess I will have to check with the gang later in the week and see what they are feeling for another exciting ride.

I am wiped out. I feel beat down and beat up. I'm not sure if it was the exciting pace on the first half or the head winds on the second half. My legs were getting sore before I left the parking lot. Considering the wind we faced the last half of the ride, I was content ending with a 17.4 mph average. I wished I had looked at the average before we started back, but I would have to imagine it was pretty good.

Again Rick I enjoyed riding with you on the first half. One of these days I hope to have a better engine to finish the ride with you. And Gary did I mention that I hate your new bike? :) Slow it down a little will ya?