We started out very civilizied, as we always do...but once we hit 441 Danny M. turned it up. The pace maintained in the low to mid 20's until Huang and Ed decided to pick it up a bit and before we knew it, we were flying towards Alachua at 30+ MPH.
After a left and then a right, we had returned to a more manageable speed, but one of our riders went down due to some plain ole bad luck. We all stopped while his rear tube was replaced and we made sure that he was okay. Other than a bit of road rash there was no damage (but I'm sure he's feeling it this morning!). Mike R. went back with him as the rest of the group wound it back up.
**this photo is me, but it's just for effect, it wasn't taken during thursdays ride**
The integrity of the group was maintained all the way to Chestnut Hill in spite of a nice steady 22-23 mph pace. A few guys dropped on Chestnut and from there we got serious. We cranked it up once again on 241 and kept the heart rate up as we turned onto Millhopper. Ira and Ed jumped as we climbed the overpass, but everyone else was willing to let them ride. They came back to the group in time for the final climb of the ride. Ed goated Joe Brew into sprinting up the final climb, hoping for a break. It was all I could do to hold thier wheel as we flew up the hill. I'm not sure who we dropped there, but that set the final selection for the flat portion of Millhopper leading to the sprint.
We were all a bit winded at this point and started a 25-26 mph rotation in order to share the load. At one point Ed tapped me to go with him on a break, I followed his wheel as he sped up to 32 mph, but I had some dificulty pulling through at that speed (go figure). We reformed, but there were less and less guys pulling through so Joe Brew took off and we let him go. We still had a couple of miles to the sprint sign and there was little chance that he would hold off the remainder of the group.
Joe was moving along at 26mph so once we started pulling him in, it took a bit longer that expected. Once we were all back together, the lead outs to the sprint started...first Ed, then Huang (who had to sit on for the last mile or two) and then Danny jumped just 50 meters to the line. I was on his wheel and tried to go around, but there wasn't enough gas in the tank.
I settled for a respectable second place following a hard, fast ride. Good job guys
IN OTHER NEWS:
American Chris Horner of the spanish team, Saunier Duval won the mountain-top finish in Stage 6 of the Tour de Swiss yesterday. He's hoping that results like that will secure him a spot on the Tour de France squad next month.
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