Oval ride 1/26! :-)

Yesterday was the first real Oval ride of the year. The weather has been crappy and nobody has been doing them but yesterday we got a good group and did the long south loop minus Carter (86 miles for me). For the first time that I can remember I was calm and collected rolling out of town. I don't have to worry about when/where the move is going to go anymore b/c I'm confident I can make it.

The ppl on the front missed a left turn out west of Windsor. I knew the turn and made it on my own and some ppl behind me followed me including Rich and Andy. We rode hard (but not all out) until we got caught at a traffic light coming into Windsor. Some guys got back while we waited for the light. Nobody wanted to drill it into the Wall so we rode easy. Dan Milano got away coming into the Wall and made it over solo! There were about 10 0f us left at this point and we rolled turns down through Johnston and then turned west into the headwind. Nobody wanted to go hard into the headwind so Dan Porter attacked and made us chase. He stayed out there for several miles which was very impressive.

The group dwindled to 7 without any attacks. Then Brad Cole and Dan started sticking it to us west of Loveland. 4 of the seven got dropped; Phil and then I made it back. Then I got dropped again just before we hit Glade Rd and Andy Clark got dropped just after me. We rode up to HTMP together and caught the front 3 (Phil Mann, Dan Porter and Brad Cole) who had stopped for water. I was completely shot and got dropped again on Marina Hill... rode it in alone a minute or two down for 5th. Not quite what I was hoping for but not a bad start to the year.

Bicycle security

My race bike is in the shed, partially dismantled (I'm training on my old bike and fixie). There's a padlock on the shed door but that hardly matters now since two of the neighborhood cats have taken up guard posts in front of the shed. Git'um, kitties!