Every city seems to have one - the weekend group training ride. Around here it's the "Giro Ride." I've done similar group rides in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Texas and California. They're always fun and they're usually pretty hard at one point or another, and for the non-OCD types like me, they're a better workout than riding alone. Now I know that a disciplined and determined rider can usally get better race results by following a carefully prescribed coach-designed workout plan, logging heart rate and wattage produced etc., etc., all to be uploaded later to the big-brother coach's computer for detailed analysis. I mean, it works for Lance. I guess I'm just willing to give up a little bit in the race-results column in order to get a little more in the fun column.
Anyway, today's ride started out with a pretty big group - around 45-50, I'd guess. The nice Fall-like weather that we enjoyed last week is long gone, and early this morning we had the usual high humidity and temperatures in the mid-80's. A couple of blocks from the Lakefront on my way to the ride start from my home uptown, my glasses started fogging up from the extra humidity caused by the warm Lake water. The official lake water temperature is 84° F.
The ride started out as usual with 5 or 6 miles of slow conversational pace along the Lakefront. Once the group got over the two bridges and hit Hayne Blvd., things ramped up pretty quickly. For the next 5 miles or so the pace stayed up around 28-30. I took a few pulls, but got out of the rotation now and then to rest a bit near the back. Heading out Highway 90 a few miles later, the pace got fast again and I was seeing a lot of 29s and 30s on the computer as a group of 15 or so riders had a fast paceline going at the front. I stayed in there for a few rotations, but didn't want to kill myself quite so early and dropped back for a while. About a mile from the turnaround sprint at Venetian Isles, I was sitting in the middle of the paceline, rather undecided about whether I realy wanted to contest it when I heard Robin coming up behind me calling my name. We had both noticed that the NBO guys were trying to organize a big leadout for the sprint, and, well, we just couldn't ignore that!
So I jump onto Robin's wheel and he rides up the left side at 29 mph and pulls even with Brett. Brett accelerates and I shift over onto his wheel causing a little disruption behind. A couple of NBO guys come around and I latch onto Noel's wheel and he basically just pulls me the last 50 meters to the nonexistant finish line at around 36 mph. Yeah, I probably could have come around him, given apropriate motivation. The ride back stayed fairly fast, with the usual sprints to tops of the two bridges. I was feeling pretty good today and went with the leaders on both. It was a fun Giro ride, but it sure is hot and humid around here.
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