The F&S peloton started out early under mostly sunny skies. It was going to be a hot day in the saddle. The pace was moderate all the way past Coolio's Corner and past the turn where the shorter group heads for home. Up to this point The Prenti, both EHOP and YHOP have been doing most of the work at the front. The pace quickened a bit up to the turn that marks the start of The Hammock.
Immediately, as if on cue, Neil "Big Guns" Geci goes to the front and accelerates into the Zone of Pain. (ZOP) He pulls the group along for a kilometer or so and then out of nowhere comes Mike "Shiny Legs" Larson who decides to take it up to the high 20s. (Shiny Legs is his old nickname from last year. This year he has yet to shave his pins, so a more appropriate title may be Fury Legs...however, I'm sure once he reads this, he will immediately remedy the dispute and be crowned with his previous moniker.)
Back to live action: Mike no sooner is on the front than he is off, claiming he hasn't ridden for a few weeks...thus the reason for the fury legs situation as expressed above. Once he peels off, Big Guns is back at it again. After a few hundred meters he moves over for the Vortex to give it a go. The Vortex takes his typical short pull and then Crusher pulls through. The survivors of the many strong pulls at this point are down to four amigos; Big Guns, Vortex, Crusher and the all too quiet, sitting on the back Lawman. Crusher does a beastly pull to within a few hundred meters of the line. He moves over and Lawman takes charge. He winds it up into the low 30s as the amigos are anticipating a view of the finish line with every curve of the road.
Finally, as they come out of last curvature in the road, they see the sign that marks the line. Mr. Fresh Legs (Lawman) jumps out of the saddle like the Olympic 100 meter Champion sprinter Usain Bolt. Whaaaaat?! Immediately, Big Guns jumps as well. At this point, the third rider in line, (Vortex) has to make a choice, "Who's wheel to follow?" He jumps on Big Guns, considering that Lawman has been pulling the last 300 hundred meters or so. However, it soon became evident...wrong wheel!
Now, with 150 meters left in the Hammock Hammer, these three were side by side charging for the line with heads down and eyes blurred. With less than 100 meters, it was Lawman a mere bike length ahead of the closing Vortex...this was going to be close! (I just love this kind of stuff!) Just 50 meters to go and the Vortex had shut it down to less than a bike length. With one final surge to the line, Lawman held off the charging Vortex by less than half a wheel! What an exciting sprint into the Hammock! Congrats to Dave "Lawman" Carroll for his first ever Hammock Hammer win! The Vortex was second, with Big Guns third and Crusher crossing the line in fourth position. Great ride down into the Hammock. However...
It is easier to get into the Hammock than...well, you know the rest. You see the younger half of the Prenti (YHOP) went to the front and pulled the group out of the Hammock at no less than 20mph! Several, including the Hammock winner were suffering at the back. (It's easier to get into...ah forget it!) The group told stories and tanked up at the rest stop.
Once back on the road, the pace was civil. We rolled all the way back over Kingsfield, Detroit, Johnson and the neighborhoods that eventually drop us onto Langley. The pace down Langley was brisk and even picked up a bit on Spanish as Big Guns went to the front to test the legs of the weary bunch. The group was altogether as they turned onto Maygarden and the pace quickened substantially. The Vortex went to the front after a pull by the big Clydesdale boy, Crusher. The pace was mid 20s as they made the turn with 1k to go. Just then, straight to the front goes Lawman. He takes the group right up to a couple hundred meters from the line. That's where Crusher and Big Guns have at it. These two were heads and shoulders above the rest, (literally, as they both are tall) meaning they left the rest of the group behind by a hundred meters. As these two bandits approached the line, Crusher was charging hard with Big Guns on his wheel. With less than 100 meters, Big Guns goes around him for the win. Crusher took a valiant second with Left Lane in his BMW third. (See his post below)
Great ride and good fun! Congrats to all and especially to Lawman and Big Guns for their wins! All told, 55 miles at an 18.5mph average.
As mentioned above Left Lane showed up in his Beemer as he claims he had a mechanical out on the course. Here's his excuse...uh, I mean, his report:
I got my bike back Friday but they had only fixed the spoke and trued the back wheel. Stone told me I had worn out my 2 largest front chain rings and that I needed to replace these as well as the chain and cassette. Looks like I have to buy my bike again!!! Probably going to be around 200-250 total by the time they are done.
I figured I would ride the Hammock anyway Saturday morning. Everything seemed fine as I rode up to F&S but as I slowed down I could here that spoke noise that you get when something is not right. Figured what the heck and rode anyway. Running gear and wheel sounded like crap the whole ride but did not have any “real” problems.
We did not have a very large group. But it was a pretty fast group. I had a reasonably good ride until we were going down The Hammock and around 3/4ths of the way down, as the peloton was accelerating over 30, my chain would skip as I tried to torque it up a notch and I just felt like not pushing it and fell off the back around a ½ mile from the end. My legs were not feeling very good this day and with the bike issues I turned around and rode out of the hammock solo. When I got to the break store up ahead and the group had not caught back up with me I decided to solo home a shorter route… 9 mile road then Old Palafox all the way back to P’Cola.
Ended up with around 42 miles total and was home around 9:30 so I grabbed a shower and figured I would get a 12-pack of Yeungling and head up to the finish on Maygarden. Had a chair a cooler and a newspaper and was going to go to the finish line and sit there sipping a beer as the boys finished and maybe get a picture or two on my cell phone. Unfortunately, they were finishing up just as I got to Maygarden. The Boys looked pretty used up and no one even had a beer. Oh well more for The Left Lane!!!
Did a short ride Sunday evening in the nasty heat. Went back to my Diadora shoes trying to improve my comfort level on the bike. Just can not seem to get everything feeling right on the bike lately. Going to try playing with the cleat position a little and maybe put in some of the wedges that come with the cleats to try and find the comfort zone.
That Left Lane, what a character.
Well, if you missed the antics, don't fret, there's more to come yet this week! Tomorrow night at 6pm and Wednesday night at 5:30pm, both start at Firestone and Summit. I hope to see everyone there for both rides!
Announcement: Look for our second Firestone and Summit Blogazoidal Contest coming soon!!! Prizes awarded to the top three! Get your thinking caps on!
See you out on the road,
Bob
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