Saturday I joined Dale and about 40 others for a 200km brevet starting in Shelbyville, KY and traveling south to Harrodsburg, KY via back roads and then back. You can see the route here.
A post midnight bedtime followed by a 5am wake-up didn't really set things up for success, but it all worked out. We started with a group of 10 and by mile 8, I had to pee so bad it hurt. So, I declared my intentions, went off the front and pulled into a volunteer fire station and stepped around the corner. I got back on the bike about 45 seconds down and was confident I could catch back on. WRONG! I think they upped the pace or something because I could only hold the gap steady or gain to 35 seconds. There was still hope though, because there was a store stop at mile 36ish and I decided to just go solo and steady making sure not to blow myself up. Sure enough, I rolled in about 5 minutes back, but before they departed so I quickly refilled my bottles and jumped on the bike just in time to catch the group of 8 at the stop light.
Shew, that solo chasing stuff sucked! Lesson learned, solo chasing a group is tough and from there I was determined not to do it again! As the day progressed the group dwindled to six, then to five, and to four when Dale slipped away on a climb with about 30 miles to go. 10 miles later though, HE BRIDGED UP!!! Solo! So we rolled onward and finished with a group of four and Dale finished just a couple minutes back after battling some cramps in the final couple miles.
7hours and 39 minutes total time - 7h 10m rolling time. Not bad for 130 miles and almost never a tailwind.
Monday I learned that two of the other three members of the front group are members of the La Société Charly Miller. This means that they are each one of 26 Americans to finish Paris-Brest-Paris in less time than Charly Miller, a Randonneur legend in the early 1900s. The third was Micah Fritzinger, who has also finished multiple 1200km brevets in outstanding times!
Sunday coach wanted me to join the 4 hour hammerfest Lee had posted but I didn't have it in me. Instead I hit the two o'clock LBC ride where a handful of racers showed including most of the TwinSpires team. Chilton said something along the lines of keep it neutral through the park and no red light breaks. Once we were off, David W and I sat at the front holding a steady but neutral pace through the park and most the way to Spring street. One light caught part of the group so we sat up and most everyone interested joined back up before we got to river road. As we made the turn I looked around and asked if anyone wanted to have some fun? David agreed and Nick declined and I jumped. Dug deep for a couple of minutes and gave a flick of the elbow expecting there to be at least four or five guys come through - nope - just one! Even on a light turnout, I've never seen a break of two stay away on one of these rides but I wanted to make it hard so we kept rotating and digging deep but not deep enough to pop. Somewhere along RRCC I noticed a group catching so we eased enough to let them join and then pushed onward.
Each of the three new guys popped off one by one until the last guy in a Louisville Firefighters kit fell off just before turning up Glenview and we kept pushing. Honestly, I was hurting pretty bad about half way up the climb but recovered near the top. Since David had just pulled me up it I figured it courteous not to challenge him in the last 50m. After turning onto Lime Kiln we cranked it up again, and again on Rudy Ln. I spaced on the sprint, partially because I had no idea if it was "proper" to sprint in a break of two or not but when David jumped I tried to respond and it just wasn't there. From there we rolled back to the start nice and steady and waited seven and a half minutes for the next group. Not bad for the day after 7 hours in the saddle!
6, 10, 12, and 20 minute power numbers were within a couple percent or better than anything I've seen so far and there's still much training to do before racing begins!
Next up - Monday's Body Geometry (bg) bike fit by Brian Gootee, Master BG Fit Technician and owner of Gray Goat Sports.
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