An Attempt at a Breakaway

The format for the ride was the same as every other week, there just happened to be these two lanky dudes throwing wrenches in the gears tonight. When Curtis and I were closing up shop and getting ready for the ride, we were noticing that there weren't all that many people showing up....strange. We got outside, and a few more people started rolling in....fast people. By the time we rolled, basically, all the fast people were there (minus a couple). E-Rich, Scott M., Jim M., Doc Rob, Mitchy Poo, Scotty Doo, Curtis, and (to a lesser extent) myself...and the big surprise; Cameron.

The first lap rolled by chill enough, everyone just kind of chatting it up. At the end of each lap there is a low sloping hill that rols us back to the start/finish. Scott and I pushed hard up it on the second lap just egging each other on. The third lap is our fast lap, so we got to the top of the hill and I said something to the effect of, "Do you wanna see how long we can hold them off?" Scott's response was less than enthusiastic, but we decided to go for it. We took off hard, knowing that we had a group of at least 4 or 5 that were going to lay chase. For a while the group was out of sight, we were killing it as best as two 160 pound climbers can kill it. We were alternating doing pulls, averaging about 24 or 25 mph. We were able to keep this pace for much longer than I thought we'd be able to. Each lap is about 6.5 miles, the sprint line comes in at about 5.5 to 6 miles. We kept looking over our shoulders, finally on one of my pulls I heard Scott say, "There they are, they're catching us." Now I knew that we were the rabbit in the distance to this group. I tried to ramp up the pace a little, but eventually the inevitable happened, I blew up. I apologized to Scott as he rode off a little ahead. The group rolled past us with about 300 or so meters to the sprint line...ouch....demoralizing. We held them off for almost 6 miles including the end of the second lap, better than I had hoped for. An epic battle!


Moving Time (h:m:s) 1:39:04 3:28 pace
Distance (mi ) 28.55
Moving Speed (mph) 17.3 avg. 36.5 max.
Elevation Gain (ft) +2,058 / -2,104