January 19, 2008

gimbel’s ride 2008.1.19

it was a decent outing. i thought it would be a lot colder than it actually was. it took some doing before i was able to establish blood flow back to my fingers but the temp was far milder than forecasted. the only thing i really noticed was the wind which was pretty hard to cut through at times.

i actually got to ride for a couple of hours yesterday following a half-day at work. while my co-workers took a field trip to catch the opening of cloverfield, i had asphalt field in mind. i did my normal short loop and stayed in the small ring the whole way trying to remind my legs the spin i once had. i think that’s the first thing to go and last thing to come back if you don’t train regularly. i can still mash and grind in spurts when i need to but that suppleness i once enjoyed seems like a distant memory. and i really really miss it.

so i thought i would small ring it the whole way today. if i want to pedal circles again, i have to start somewhere and it’s better late than never. i did stick to my plan in the first half. the pace was moderate and i spun in the lowest gear i possible could without getting gapped. even when bernie took off on the ibm hill, i made sure not to instigate a chase too early wanting to stay in my 39xsomething without having to spin my ass off.

actually i didn’t realize the solo attacker was bernie until way later. if you guys don’t know bernie, here’s my favorite story. about 3 years ago on the long ride, i saw bernie pull from the last hill on 22 all the way to the end of the ride. and i mean all. the. way. think about that for a second. yea, he’s a manimal.

thankfully he was behaving much more civil today, only dangling a hundred yards in front us. at one point he was joined by another rider who bridged across to him but we managed to pull them back before the situation got serious.

when bernie was caught on the base of the picket fence climb, i countered and threw in a little small-ring attack to see if i can draw out few people interested in forming a breakaway but nothing really materialized. from there on, we rode ‘compacto’ the whole way. 

in the first sprint i was trying to set up will and things were going pretty well. bernie was pulling, will was right on his tail and i was tailing will calling audibles. we had a small gap and i thought we had the sprint bagged until 3-4 riders swarmed us without me noticing. when i yelled at will to jump it was already too late. i had botched a perfect setup for will by not looking one more time in the last 50 meters. shit.

even more disgraceful was the last sprint where i *almost* botched it again with the same setup and the same 3 people! this time i was the one at the front stringing out the pack. we created a small gap again. when i started to stall on the top of the last hump, bernie swung through with will on his tail. i was utterly popped and almost forgot to notice someone had jumped behind me and now closing fast on the duo. “left! left!” this time i relayed the call to will just in time that he could grab the guy’s wheel and beat him at the line. it would’ve been pretty embarrassing if i botched twice on the same day.