More Hard Work

Started out lookin' like it might rain, but within an hour there wasn't even a trace of the clouds left. I'd bundled up pretty good, so by the end of the ride I was lookin' a little silly. Well, silly-er than I usually do. I think my nose got sunburned. Yeah, like I need more attention drawn to it.

I appreciate cops and am glad they're out there, and am glad they try to keep us cyclists in line too. Came to an intersection, that is off the beaten path, and was surprised to see an unmarked cop car. I can safely say I've never stopped at that sign before, and it's unusual to have to wait for a car. Because I saw the cop, I needed to stop. But, I'd been surprised. I called out "stopping" while at the same time I was stopping. Amy caught my rear wheel and went down. A little dust, no bike issues, no blood...I felt really bad. We quickly made sure everything was working and safe and got back on our bikes. All of us were laughing and talking again in just minutes. I still feel bad. She's gonna have a couple good sized bruises.

Just really a drop-dead gorgeous day, light winds, tons of sun, birds singing and signs of spring everywhere. One of the riders needed to be done a little early, and at 25 miles turned for home, so it was just BK, Amy and me now. Hanover, Rockford, Delano we were knocking off the cities at a pretty good clip. In Delano, we came up on Mike and Paula with some of their riding buddies, and joined forces through Mayer and Waconia.

I started feelin' the ride after Waconia, and we had some nasty little rollers and a bit of a head wind to deal with. Mike and BK were on a tear and I was hangin' on for dear life. Amy dropped off a little so I fell back, with the idea that I'd bring her back up. Yeah, that was gonna happen. Fortunately they are good guys, AND I'm the only one who knows the route (this stupid look is just a disguise). Yep! they waited at a turn, for us. We really weren't that far behind.

Mike turned back to rejoin his group so it was just BK, Amy and me to take on those nasty little rollers. They hurt! They hurt a lot! Amy didn't let go this time. I looked at her and said, man! you need to crash more often. She said something back, but I couldn't understand it, her mouth was full of a protein bar or somethin'. Seems like I was lookin' at my cassette a lot in disbelief that I was out of gears.

One particular hill got us all pretty good, and I was just about out of matches. BK did the lion's share of the work after that. We had about 25 miles to get home.

Good, good hard ride today! At Delano (45 miles) we were averaging 20.0. At Mayer (70 miles) we were averaging 20.3. I like it when nobody gives up. We rolled in to the finish with 98/20.6
Where's the Advil?