Carried Away

When we started out on this morning's levee ride, I wasn't really planning on making a race out of it. I must admit, though, that in retrospect I probably had a little bit of pent-up energy from having skipped the usual Tuesday morning hammerfest. When Dan and I led the group out, we didn't dawdle along at the usual 12 mph pace for the first couple of miles. Instead, we were rolling along at a comfortable 20 mph or so. As we continued, our pace inched up bit by bit, and so did the gap between the rest of the group and us. I don't think I ever looked back, so I'm not real sure how much of a gap ultimately developed, but of course you can always tell from the sound, or lack thereof, when there's nobody behind you. About half-way out we started to get a little carried away with what had become a nice smooth tailwind-assisted 2-man time trial. The pace was now up to around 25 mph, and by the time we had Williams Blvd. in site things were really getting out of hand as we had gotten the pace up to 27 or so. That's about when we started to back off a bit. Just like one of those flat Tour de France stages where the break works all day and then finally gets chased down by the peleton in the last 500 meters, we heard the rest of the group pull up behind us just before we hit the turnaround. I've got to admit, though, it was fun! Clearly I haven't been getting enough racing in. Speaking of which, I got an email from Gina V., who had been complaining about the recent disruptions to her racing season the last time I talked to her. Apparently, and not surprisingly to me, she had just gotten back from racing in Raleigh, Baltimore and Somerville where her team had gotten some good results. Somerville is one race I'd like to ride just once. It's probably one of the oldest races in the country. When I first started racing, this is one of the big races people always talked about. As usual, Gina got herself photographed. (She's the one on the right in the Cheerwine jersey). She said she's on her way to AZ for graduation right now and then will be back in Atlanta to close on her new condo about the time she starts her residency.

At work today we had some folks from Discover Magazine up on the roof (aka my office) taking photos of the city. I never did find out exactly what for.