All Strung-out and Gritty

"Another easy ride" I thought as I waited atop the levee in the dark this morning. There were only a couple other guys there and it was windy and humid and I was thinking we'd probably end up turning around early.

WRONG!

Just after we headed out I could see a cluster of flashing white lights coming our way from the Jefferson Playground where a lot of the riders meet up, and soon we had a nice-sized group. After about a mile, "The Donald" rolled past me, his characteristic heavy cologne hanging in his draft, and soon we're up around 27 mph and all strung out in a single-file line. The Donald then proceeded to tow the whole bunch at 27 mph for at least three or four miles. It was still pretty dark and let me tell you it's kind of sketchy at that speed in a paceline when there's a crosswind and you can't really see the edge of the road. When he finally pulled off, I thought the pace might slow for a while, but right away Todd of The Bicycle Connection takes over and surges up to 29 or so. A gap starts to open and for a while I'm on the rivet making the bridge. He settles down to around 27 and I rotate through a few times as the sky starts to lighten up a bit.

We've just missed a rain shower and the road is quite wet, so the whole time I'm trying to strike that delicate balance between getting a decent draft and having gritty water sprayed up my nose. I look back and the pack is a good 20 seconds back, so we keep up the pace for a few more miles and then Todd looks back and says he's shutting it down soon. He got no complaints from me. The rest of the group catches up and we ride the remaining few miles out to the turnaround. As we go under the grain elevator, it's practically raining grain dust and the wet road is covered with it as well. Most of it ends up stuck to our legs and bikes. The return trip starts out fairly easy, but eventually there are only about five guys pulling and the rest sitting on. I look down and see that I'm plastered with dirt and grit from the wet road. It looks like I just finished a 'cross race.

It was a good training ride, though. I kinda needed that.