Visit to the Big Ring

I had to double-check the thermometer this morning. Sixty-four degrees? Really? I saw it, but I didn't really believe it and left the house way too late wearing two jerseys and arm-warmers, which proved to be one jersey and two arm-warmers too much.

I raced out to the levee hoping the group might be delayed, but I was already so late that I didn't even want to look at my watch. Of course, I had missed them. The question was, then, "by how much?" It was still kind of dark and I couldn't see anything up the road, so I put my head down and drove on, hoping that I might get close before they started going fast. Sometimes if I'm just a minute or two late I can catch up with them before they really get up to speed, which doesn't usually happen until they're past the playground. There was a bit of a tailwind, though, so I guess they were all in the Big Rings early.

As the sky got brighter I could see a lone rider up the road, and although I couldn't tell who it was, I could see that he was going pretty fast. I broke down and shifted to the Big Ring and picked my pace up to around 24 mph. I was not closing very quickly, though, and it was probably four miles before I finally rolled up behind Matt. He never knew I'd been back there chasing, since he himself had been too late to meet the group, so I snuck up behind him and grabbed his seat (kids, don't try this at home). Surprise! I thought he was going to end up in the grass for a moment. It turned out that he had flatted on his way to meet the group. We settled into a moderate pace and enjoyed the increasing tailwind. Matt said, "I think it's going to be a hard ride back today." That was no doubt true, but I just kept telling myself that it wouldn't be too bad because by then we'd be riding with a nice big group with lots of people to share the work. I'm such a dreamer.

After passing two people with flats who had been in the group, we saw them coming toward us and finally joined in as everyone was waiting for a third person who had flatted. Once everyone was back on their bikes, Tim started to roll off the front with me and Rob in tow. Soon Max came through the rotation and I thought, "good, now the whole group is back together." You can imagine my surprise, or perhaps dismay, when I dropped back after taking my pull to find that the group was at least 40 seconds back and Tim was definitely not waiting. Max had just made a rather long bridge up to us. So anyway, we ended up pushing pretty hard, at least by my December standards, all the way back until Max and then Tim dropped off to head home. I have to say, it felt good to be back in the Big Ring after having spent a lot of time lately in the spin cycle, but I have a feeling my legs will be reminding me about it tomorrow.