Early AM ride: The group rolled out of Braselton at 8:00 with Nathan O'N leading six of us around the rural roads toward Jefferson and back. The wind was intense with gusts over 25 mph, but the sun broke through the clouds and lifted everyone's spirits as well as the temperature.
On a section of road that Mister O'N plans to use for motor-pacing and time trial intervals soon, we had a nice tailwind and he and I wound it up for a minute or so. None of the other riders could hang on as we completely spun-out or 53x11's. He said his power meter was registering 1200 watts briefly. I know he was nearly on the rivet, because he started flicking his elbow at me to take a pull, but I was not willing and we had totally ridden everyone off our wheel anyway.
On a long downhill, just before we parted ways, I decided to lead O'N out for a county line sprint. Two riders were off the front and it was debatable whether or not we could catch them in the headwind, but I was confident and urged him to get on my wheel. Motoring down the hill at 40 mph we caught and passed the two other riders and O'N easily came around me to take the county line sprint. In a real race he would have to pay me for that effort.
The group headed back to the Addictive Cycles bike shop, where we had started about 2.5 hours earlier, making it a 41+ mile loop for us. O'N turned the other direction, headed into the wind toward Bethlehem and then to Grayson (another 1.5 hours in the saddle) to go have turkey with his in-laws. This pro cyclist is averaging 4 to 5 hours of chamois-time every day, rain or shine, and that's what it takes!
Posted by dancoy at November 25, 2004 12:43 PM