Wednesday, April 8, 2009

WVU Rocks out the MBC Fast ride

Attack, Attack, Attack!!

That was the theme of tonight's hammer ride.

Apparently there was an incident with a cyclist and a car. Nate Annon dropped out of the pack to take a tinkle and was apparently assulted by a car. After passing closely, the car break checked causing Nate to rear end him. The Brasmanian devil, having lost a waterbottle came up later and helped out. Although the guy had been drinking, he wasn't legally drunk, according to the cops who showed up.

Headed out 100 with the usual friendly pace. I had a nice view behind Janel... looking at the river. Headed under the railroad trussel and the carnage began. Steve pulled an attack from the left and I don't even know what happened from there. I held on for as long as I could, seeing up to 32mph and a 200bpm heart rate heading up 100. Brock was showing some strong legs, as were Talbott, Jimmy, and Papa Dave. Janel stayed with it too. Never saw Bala, I guess he passed me too quick as I fell out. I will happily report that this week I dropped out of the pack before Ryan did, but none the less we kept on going to the Rt. 19 regroup like little slowboys would.

After the regroup it came time for the state line sprint, which Ryan apparently ruined by having a huge leadout and making two cars sit in the gap between the pack and him. Way to go, chief.

Pedals were spinning quick on Big Shannon. 25mph or so heading out. I stayed in the pack and even pulled at one point, which was a fun change. I hung in as long as I could but blew up and dropped out of the pack somewhere in the rollers near Kiger hill. I stopped for awhile and soft pedaled a bit waiting for the pack to come back and catch me, which Ryan came in the distance. He fell out of the pack early but was still chasing.

I pulled an Andy Weidrich and jumped into the race pack as they passed me going back down Big Shannon to Mt. Morris, picking up Gunnar and Betsy who were late having spent some time with Nate and the Policy men. The front 8 or so of us formed a paceline and pushed back into town. It was uber fast and I fell back with Steve, Ryan, and another rider and we rejoined the group at the turn back on Rt 19. The group made our way back, passing 100, and over the hill on 19. On the descent we got an awesome paceline going, holding 40mph for a nice period of time. I took two pulls at the front, one at about a 32mph pace and the other around 28mph. The paceline was working awesome, definitely the best one I've ever been in. Took some confidence building at first to trust those wHeels I was chasing on some bumpy roads, but all was well.

Through Osage and back into town was uneventful. The pace slowed coming into Westover and I rode back following Jimmy and Steve. Then we lost Steve? Weird. Must have hit a deer.

Slowboy GPS Link

-Chad, not Ryan.

WVU Crew: Jimmy, Janel, Brock, James, Ryan, Bala, Chad, Steve, Talbot, Papa Dave