Lesson Un-Learned

A few weeks ago I wrote about a crazy ride I had with Steve. We set out under nice skies and were then treated to tornado and hail warnings and some of the scariest looking clouds I have ever seen in my life. This afternoon I saw some not so pleasant colors on the radar, but I was optimistic that the group ride would be able to skirt around them. On my warm-up ride down Sand Rd. it was sunny and sticky. on the way back I could see some dark clouds approaching from the west, but I still figured that we could avoid most of it.

When I rolled up to the park Brian Eppen was on his rain/winter bike. An old mountain bike with slick tires, fenders, and a top gear of 42-12. Hmm. Rick Hopson was busily checking his blackberry or i-phone and excitedly showing us pictures of the doom that was headed our way. Of course, all we really had to do was look up.

Despite the impending soaking, the group ride was still really large. We rolled out south on old 218 as many riders had pointed out that the Hill's police have been cracking down and shelling out $75 tickets to cyclists who cross the closed bridge over the river. Catching the group ride would make their summer.

On the way out of town the group was light hearted and joking, but I'm sure it was just to cover up the fact that we were all somewhat uncomfortable being there. I personally clung to the silly cliche "safety in numbers." As if a tornado would have any more trouble with 25 riders than it would with 2.

I took my first pull early on the long-ish hill just south of town. The pace was relaxed and steady. But when we crested the hill we could see the crazy storm was just to our right and sprinkles had just started to fall. I don't know who was on the front at that point, but they drilled it. Hard. The group immediately started splitting into gaps. I leap-frogged a few riders and caught up to the second group only to come to the front and realize that I was in the third group. Shit.

I put my head down and pulled us up to the second group and felt better when I saw that the first group only contained 3 people. We caught them when we turned west and crested the overpass. Right as the skies really opened up. The roads had water running everywhere, and the county had just dropped a lot of chunky black tar to seal up some cracks. This all made for some semi-sketchy rotating. I took a few pulls early on, but then I had to sit in, I was worried about getting dropped in the storm and riding in alone.

But as we crested round-barn hill, the skies started to clear up again and I noticed that our group only contained 11 people. We were now riding a hard, but manageable pace as we continued on to Fry Town. When we hit the Turnpike, though, things lit up again. I followed some wheels and witnessed Eppen make one of the craziest jumps to mark an attack I have ever seen. I came over the final big hill at the front and pulled down the descent. After a little jockying for position the the Bikes 2 You boys took off. Adam Price worked to close the gap but couldn't make it (no one takes more pulls on the group rides than Adam Price). Feeling bad for Adam's suffering, I came around as hard as I could and worked to bridge the gap, making sure that Adam was on my wheel. I brought him and a few riders almost all the way there, but it wasn't enough.

It was enough, however, to earn my a hearty Brian Eppen pat on the back approval. And that made it worth it for me. Plus the Bikes 2 You duo had ridden so hard they pretty much just blew up and were never seen from again.

Onto Black Diamond Rd. and we were looking at the back of the storm that had soaked us. We briefly worried about getting wet again, but the storm had no problem pulling away from our rotating paceline that held steady at 29 mph. I hung on and took as many pulls as I could all the way down Rhoret, where I attacked way to early for the sprint. Again it was OK as I finished the ride in a rather select group of 7 and earned another semi-compliment when Jim Cochran twice accused me of doing "secret training."

Nothing secret this time, though. Just consistent riding. And it led to the best group ride I've had since I left Iowa City five years ago. Of course, I didn't "win" anything, and I couldn't ride away from anyone, but maybe if I start implementing some "secret training" I can get there. And hopefully when I do, the weather will be a little bit better.