gimbel’s ride 2007.11.25
this was another tough one for me. i don’t think my legs could carry 4 straight days of riding. they were heavy and they hurt. a lot. with each pedal stroke. it also didn’t help that i barely got 3 hours of sleep last night and my hr was noticeably high.
the weather was kind enough though. i actually had to take off a layer before we rolled out of the parking lot. whatever energy i had on reserve was spent before the ride even began when i had to ride ahead of the pack to my piss stop.
i kept expecting the same old move to come from rob or hammean on rt.22 but it never did. instead it was a newcomer city guy on raleigh who was doing most of the pulling at very respectable pace. i was glad to sit in as long as i could.
charged up with a false sense of conserved energy from a relatively relaxed pace up to that point, i gave it a go on the picket fence climb hoping to thin out the pack. hammean towed 4 other guys pass me at the top to form the first breakaway of the day. the move was short lived however. we were soon joined by another dozen or so riders and the group was simply too big to work together effectively.
the pack behind us was no slouch either. it helps to have guys like juan, pete and clarence to bridge up to the attackers once the road flattens out. we may have shed few riders but for the most part we were pretty much gruppo compacto the whole way.
my legs were completely stalling out on me by the time we hit the poggio. i just burned few milligrams of fumes i had left on the tank trying to string out the pack on rt.1 but i couldn’t managed that either. the pace i was setting was pretty ridiculous. just as i popped, hammean launched a surprise attack. i thought he might have a chance to stay away with guys swerving around the otto’s group being overtaken but i hear the sprinters caught him before the line with brian finishing first.
4 years ago