Still in a bit of a bother and denial, I left the house in a deficit. Pulled out the only Gu in half an hour and sucked it dry riding through the rollers in Millersville (where I work). I had a pancake and a mega mug and a half of herbal tea to hydrate. Forty miles. Should be doable.
I love Karen. She is super positive, motivating and inspiring. She meets me to do half of the ride. As usual I ride looking backwards checking for the guys. They catch us way too early (15 minutes from the start of the ride; 45 minutes for me). I had warned Karen that even though my stomach was empty, even after that Gu, I was jumping on. Jumping on gets me farther ahead, faster, gets the ride over quicker.
Mike the cop is on a roll even after blowing everyone away on the r-t-r yesterday. I knew I was crazy but I grabbed his wheel. He said, "hello, I am just going to go steady." Sure no problem. Right! I hang for a few minutes, make a right, and four guys were chasing (Art, Randy, Jim, ?). I don't remember if Mike shifted gears but I unhinged. I hung on for dear life by the Pequea Elementary School, trying to roll up to Mike so the guys who just caught on would not be gapped by my explosion. I ride in limbo until the lolly-gagging pack catches me. I hung again for another few miles until route 222 south. Karen doesn't like to have any of that craziness. Plus, the cold air triggers her asthma pretty quickly when she goes hard. We ride together again and go our separate ways at Strasburg.
I run into Jed Schober who missed all the usual suspects of Sunday worlds. I was WAY behind the guys and planned on taking the shortest, short cut to intersect the guys. Little did I know that I would have to ride hard to help Jed get there, too. We took Ronks Road to I don't know the name road, took a right onto Beechdale Road. Halfway on Beechdale, you can look head at Stumptown Road watching for the guys. 11:51 a.m. we turn left onto Stumptown Road. No guys. I placed my bet and hoped I had won the gamble. Riding with my head turned around, no guys. Two minutes later, I see the swarm with two or three rabbits off the front. Woohoo. I won the bet. Jed's happy, I happy and we jump into the game. Balls to the wall, Mike the cop is on the front towing teammate, Keith Wilson. The blow by me. I hope to jump on the pack and no luck. Fine with me. I found one rider off the back willing to help me get back to Lancaster for the last fifteen minutes.
Home again, making protein shakes and pizza for the guys at the house, I started carbing up with a Hoegaarden. I wish I could take the cap nap, waking the cats so they could make the apple pie and pumpkin cornbread biscuits for the super bowl party.
Oh, who won Stumptown: Mike the Cop. Man, he is on fire. He's coming down to Asheville for our late February vacation (training camp). Yup. We loved Asheville so much we are going back. It has almost been a year since I started this blog based on our time in Asheville last year.
