Passed and gassed

A few interesting stories from a second day in a row of hot and humid riding the way I like it.

My legs were tired after the climbing workout on Monday, but by 11-30 I was on the road under the sun. Heading toward Loomis in the parkway I was tooling along into some wind minding my own business when out of the blue a roadie blows by me on the left. I immediately look down to see my speed so as to get a handle as to how fast this guy was going.  I was only doing 17.7 when I checked. He was gone.


Doing Sunny Slope at the start of my rides is going to get old fast. That's a lot of climbing when I am not even warmed up yet thanks to all the construction keeping me from getting onto the OLT when I usually do. I was already tired when this guy passed.


After he was gone about a block or more up I decided to use the stretch to Loomis as a workout on bridging the gap. I put the Madone into the big ring where it should normally be and I worked with about as much as I could muster. I was hardly gaining on him at all. Then I gained a bit on him the cheater's way...he had to wait for traffic at 76th and I did not. But even with that advantage it didn't take long for him to pull away by leaps and bounds.

Sunny, muggy and hot
86 degrees
Wind, 8-10
Three Bridges, 40 miles



As I turned to get onto the Three Bridges route in Franklin he kept going straight far ahead of me. He never saw me, but I saluted him and said out loud as I turned, "Good on ya mate. Good riding." Two more riders passed me today too. I guess I was just slow on the first half of the ride.


Now it was time to recover and take it easy seeing the sights on the path. Only problem was that there were no sights to see. It was really dead in there, both on the way down and on the way back.


One oddity on the path today. At one point on the way back I looked up to see a Franklin police car driving head-on down the path at me. Never saw that before!


Then came more passing and gassing on the parkway on the way home. At one point a woman in a sleeveless jersey passed me as I was starting off from a stop sign. She's riding a flat-bar bike with knobby tires and I'm not catching her. What the???


I had to get up to 18.3 to pass her. Why I felt the need to do that is beyond me. Then it got worse. I decided that before I got back on the path I'd take this section and go all out to show the little lady what I can do. Bah...what an idiot I am out there. Into the drops and up a couple of gears and I blasted away. I just about blew up at the end of the run, but it did force me to push beyond my comfort zone. She was gone now and I dialed it down.


A few miles later I heard a rider coming up behind me, then he passed me on the left riding a Seven bike. Nice guy...he kept yelling out 'clear' as he passed through intersections ahead of me. I had nothing left in my legs or mind to try to get up to his wheel and ride with him.


Then I heard a guy say 'left' from behind me again. But wait, that's no guy, it's THE SLEEVELESS CHICK riding past me again. She had fought back and passed me for Christ sake. Well, I dialed it up a bit again and went passed her a second time before I turned off the beaten path and headed for the climbs back home around the construction.


Once again you see how fellow riders, strangers, help each other out there by pushing us to ride harder. That guy early-on helped me. Sleeveless pushed me and I pushed her back. It's all good.


But the best of the ride came toward the end when, due to the construction re-route, I stopped at Nora B's in Elm Grove to see my friend Nora...show her my bike...and drink the best cup of ice water I believe I have ever downed in my life!



Season Miles: 1,170