I was riding the trusty 72' LeJeune last September in a century when I encountered a rude group of roadies. The LeJeune was in full fred mode with fenders, racks and big trunk bag. The course is mostly flat but has about 15 miles around the 60 mark with some hills in it. This ragtag group caught me in the hills but I managed to hang on the back until the 75 mile rest station. We in turn, overtook a 3some in which one was riding a 80' Mercian. At the rest station, the Mercian rider and I were ogling each other's rides and swapping stories. One of the roadie group comes up and exclaims, "you 2 need to get a bike from this century!" Then we hear the guffaws and have to answer the usual questions that come after.

Them's fighting words!

So I size up the roadie group. They were a ragtag bunch. Then I look at what we have left to the finish. Flat and windy. Perfect! I wait and go out with them. Then after about a mile, I tell them I'm going to TT to the finish and see what kind of time I can manage. I tell them I will pull them the whole way but they have to keep up. So I take off and of course, they give chase. One by one they gradually fall off the back unable to keep up the pace. With 10 miles left I still have one beanpole left in the draft. We come out of the tree lined protected land and hit the bare coastal land and the wind! Now, I'm a 5'8" 195lb freight train type so the wind does not affect me too much. Can't say the same for the beanpole. When we hit the wind, I went to the drops and the beanpole could not respond. I broke his draft and he was toast! He faded quickly and was gone. I stood up at 4 miles left and was by myself. I kept the pace up until the finish. Then I refueled, rehydrated, and switched out my t-shirt for a different size. I loaded up the bike and left. On the road out I passed the Mercian trio finishing and gave them a honk and a thumbs up. About a minute behind them came the group of roadies that I dropped. They had blown up so bad that they had been overtaken by the Mercian trio who were just riding casually. I gave them a honk and a wave as well. Needless to say, they did not return the wave.