I pulled into the lot around 6:15 or so. Saw quite a few BFers outside and around registration. I saw Thomson at the starting line. As I was talking to him I realized I was wearing my glasses and not my sunglasses. d'oh. Back to car! By the time I got back to the start the BF crew had gone, double d'oh, the chase commences.
I caught up with the bf peleton at the first sag. I almost skipped it since it was only 15 miles into the ride. Glad I stopped though. We took off from sag 1 and started to ride... fast. But, we were in paceline for most of the way so it didn't seem so bad.
I left Sag 2 a little before the bulk of the crowd so I could take my sweet time on the big climb and figured they'd catch up, sure enough, everyone caught up in good order and again we went... FAST
I did the same trick after sag 3 since it worked so well after 2, but didn't realize Joel was having some mechanical word done, so I wound up getting pretty far ahead riding with Asia and Sheldon. Between 3 & 4, I ran into some old TnT friends who are pretty much hammerheads. They were clearly taking it easy, but even so, keeping up with them had me going .. FAST
Coming out of Sag 4, I was starting to feel it and hit something of a wall around mile 80. I could manage the flats, but my climbing legs were gone. I dropped to my easiest gear at almost every roller and tried to make up the time on the flats.
After SAG 5. Asia, Sheldon and I hammered for about 10 miles when we split up, I was having a hard time doing anything but around 19mph at this point. Any slower and my legs started to hurt, any faster, well, I really couldn't do any more as my heart rate was pretty much through the roof as it was.
Sheldon took off ahead as he got some burst of energy and Asia fell a little back (sorry!) I wound up coming in with a another group of TnT'ers as I knew one of them in the group.
I really need to do a better job of managing my pace on these rides, less time in sag and a milder pace will get me back in fine time. I do great with it in small groups, but it's tough in large groups.
I can't get the ride uploaded from my Garmin (curses!), but it was something like 6:15 ride time and around 7:30 overall for the 102 miles. It was great seeing everyone, great ride and great conditions.
If anyone has a garmin, please post a link from your motionbased.
That is all.
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just being