Just Another Tuesday on the Levee

It was another Tuesday morning training ride on the levee today. The weather lately has been pretty good and so even at 6:15 am there was a big group ready to go. The only issue today was the light ground fog. By the time we'd gone two or three miles my glasses were already too fogged up to see through and I spent the next fifteen or twenty miles looking over the tops of them. We must have had a little tailwind, though, because the speed was brisk with a few inexplicable surges. When we got to the turnaround out by Ormond, it looked to me like everyone was ready for a little break. Indeed, the group started back at a conversational pace, and for a long time there was no hint that it would ever pick up again.

We were somewhere around the dip when I looked over at the guy riding next to me and commented, "They sure are being civilized so far. I'm just waiting for the next shoe to fall." A little while later, a couple of guys surged off the front and a big gap opened right away. I couldn't really tell if the group was just going to let them go or decide to mount a chase. Suddenly, one rider jumped clear on the right and started to bridge, then another, and another. I knew it was time to go, but I was still thinking that the group could catch, and for a minute or two we started to close, but then the chase completely fell apart. I took a long pull thinking it might stabilize things so we could get a paceline going again, but when I went to pull over I discovered I was alone. I guess that's the trouble with the training rides this time of year. Everyone seems to have a different take on 'winter training' so while, on any given day, some might think it's a great idea to hammer away for fifteen miles at a stretch, others are fully invested in the LSD concept. Add to the mix a couple of riders who are determined to stay in the small ring and work on form and it can get pretty hard to organize a chase group.

Up ahead I could see that the chasers had caught the leaders and now there was a strong group of at least six up the road. I wasn't losing too much time on them, and when Chip came up to help I figured we had a shot at making the bridge. We worked together for a long time and at one point got pretty close, but we just didn't have enough horsepower close the deal, and the group up ahead was showing no signs of slowing down. For some reason they had decided to really put the hammer down today. When we came around the curve at the Country Club and the road turned into the wind we knew it was over, so we backed down a notch for the last few miles back. Oh well. It was a good workout anyway.