new and OLD

This morning rich had some type of excuse as to why he did not ride... something about taking his daughter to the airport.....

The rumor has it that this last week has been a tough one for having numbers at the morning ride, but this morning we had a HUGE group... 4. well at least I think that is a big group. Nothing like the 6-7 that there seems to have been on the am ride in the past... Russ thought there should be more riding in the AM with the heat, maybe more people are like me and do not have air conditioning and cannot sleep, therefor do not have the energy to ride this early.. I have to admit, I get up at 6am everyday, yet for some reason 5:15 seemed really early. Nonetheless, I was pumped to get out on this ride at temperatures below 70.

So as I went down the hill, it was still dark, as i rode along superior street to the Lester River Rd, the sun started coming up.....


This is where I ran into Peter Aas(sp?), for whom this was also his first AM ride, so he and I were the "NEW." Of course he had to get back a little sooner because he was supposed to be at work by 7am... but since it is his B-day, he decided that his boss would forgive him some (he is the boss.)

So then we left for the shore, and we rode a great ride...


Of course my concern as always that I am going to get dropped, and it seemed like the "OLD" guys on the left of the above pictures (names withheld for liability issues) were doing there best to get rid of me before any of these....


As we headed up McQuade, all I could do was hang on... thank goodness Russ has a very smooth riding style and was willing to let me hang on for dear life... so all i could see was...

in between the beads of sweat pouring off my sunglasses...

As we got to the top, Peter decided he needed to peal off so he could actually get to work... phew, one less person I have to beat for the sprints...

As we turned back down the shore, Russ decided the best way to quell my fierce sprint was to burn out my legs, so he sat in the front pulling me towards the last stop head sign again with me suffering like a dog



As it turned out, I was able to make it to the last 300 yds, and tricked Dave into starting the sprint early.... as it ended up, I did what was need and got the


....Then I rode home at ~12mph... ouch... now that my trash talking is done, I will probably not show up any more am rides... at least that would be smart on my part unless I hope to ride in a sufferfest....