Thursday Night Group Ride.

Well, it's that time of year.  The days are getting just long enough for groups of rabid, pale, twitchy cyclists to get in a few miles after work without donning a torch and Gore-Tex.  Hence, the Tuesday / Thursday Lewisville rides are back.

Barry, Mitch and I met up with plans to do the A (fast) ride.  Duane showed up which improved the style quotient of the group considerably.  There had to be 50 people altogether riding out there tonight.  The chaos started right away as groups were separated by cars on the way out of town.  Rolling across the Yadkin River, things began to sort out, and by the time we got into Yadkin County proper, we were clipping along in a nice rotating paceline. 

A group of us (9, maybe?) started putting in some hard pulls at the front and eventually separated ourselves from most of the peloton.  The nice part about this is that four CLMers were in said group and digging deep.  It was a beautiful sight, especially because we've done a pretty poor job of riding together over the winter.  I can't wait for late spring.

I was feeling that skipped breakfast by mile 20, and was dangling off the back by the time we were about 7 miles from home.  Barry was looking strong, but interestingly we both struggled at similar points during the ride -- talk about fitness symmetry.  Makes sense, given our very similar training regimens.  Our group had been reduced to seven by the time we returned to Lewisville, and after a somewhat anti-climactic sprint, we limped in.  At least I did.

We averaged around 22.5mph and although I didn't have my HR strap on and I can guess I averaged in the upper 160s.  Good stuff for March.

This weekend brings a serious ride in the NC mountains with a CLMer or two, then our big Battenkill simulation next weekend.  It's getting close now...