Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Fading light, fading fight, whatta night

Strava just might be the devil. I can hear the "Water Boy" reference now...

"Bobby Boo-SHAY, that Strava is the DEVIL!"
"Muh-momma, muh-momma, muh-momma say da Strava ain't no good!"

It's an evil, evil temptress, a succubus of strength and vitality, and destroyer of men. It's siren song haunts you in your waking dreams, bidding you come ride into the deeper water, where torrents of anguish drown you in sorrow.

Or it could be I have terrible character flaws. Naw. Much better when it's someone else's fault.

We had some cannons on the loose tonight - Troy, John T., Greg, James... Scott was under the weather and Galloway was along for a steady ride. I had already run with the girls and couldn't be sure how hard my left knee could be pushed. My meniscus has been sore for a few weeks now, and I'm beginning to get genuinely worried about it.

Anyway, a light east wind greeted us on departure. We had to take Highway 37 from the start if we had any shot of completing the ride tonight - darkness would surely overtake us if we went the regular route. On top of that, there was no moping around - this was a ride!

On the way out, the highway leg averaged over 22 mph by my computer. We didn't rest long. We wound our way to 337, then I lead a 21.5 mph average 10 miles out to the turn point. Scott, who wasn't feeling well, had turned early. Galloway was a bit off the back. In the short time it took him to arrive, Greg and James cooked our gooses (geese?).

They both wanted to do a rotating pace line. The speed wasn't to be high - in the 24's - but we would be in constant motion. And this time, though I didn't catch this at first, we rotated back-to-front. Things would be interesting indeed.

It took a couple of rotations, but we eventually got into it. Speed wound up between 24.5 and 26-high, sort of up-and-down as people passed through. It sounds like a wild fluctuation, but it really wasn't bad. While it is true I could easily have outridden our average on my own, I think it was a harder workout for me to be in the group. Hey, I came to work hard, remember?

I didn't know if anyone would sprint for the finish, I only knew I wouldn't, no matter what. James split, Greg on his wheel. James was simply too much, and Greg had to finish for second. John T., Troy, and I happily mailed in the finish.

After this, we headed back to Highway 37. I knew the hard ride wasn't over quite yet. Troy had asked on the way out where the segment was on the highway. I told Galloway after the pace line, Troy would try that segment, and right on cue, once he hit the highway he split away from the group.

It was his bad luck that he tried to escape from James, Greg, and John T., because they weren't having it. They caught and passed him on the first incline, and he didn't seem to recover. I was about an eighth-mile back with Galloway by this point, and I planned to ride in with him. He told me he was fine if I took off. I said, "I'm going to tell these guys what Troy is up to." Yeah, right.

First, it took me a LONG time to catch them. We were past the Holiday Drive-In before I caught Troy, then a bit further down John T., and finally Greg in the final stretch. I'd seen James bolt before I could get there, and I knew there was no hope of getting to him. Still I passed each person and kept going, pushing harder and harder, fruitless as it was. Go down swinging, thinks I.

The segment, actually the segments, are James's. There is no catching him, and he surely broke both times. Then the amazing happened. He turned early. Strava doesn't give "almost" points. You either do the course or you don't. That meant, so long as I wasn't passed, I had a shot at getting on the board. While I hated to take anything from Lester, the cat was out of the bag; Troy and James both know it's there now. One or the other will have it soon.

I was happy to see later that Lester has retained one of his crowns by a scant few seconds. The other, the sprint of all things, I did manage to take. Again, a short-lived victory for sure.

Wendy's was great, I even got a frosty tonight, as it is likely going to be the last one for me. I know, I say this every week, but daylight is encroaching harder each week. We are simply running out of daylight...

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