Saturday Ride

We continue to have uncertain weather here, and it was completely overcast. My rule is I won't start in the rain, but will finish in it. So I folded my rain jacket into my shirt pockets and set out to do 50 miles.

I must say that with no mountains to climb and no cappuccino to savor at the top it's not the same.

The ride was pretty uneventful, although I did have the wind at my back for a very nice 8 mile stretch of straight highway, with made riding very pleasant.

With about 4 miles to go I saw a group of cyclists making a turn into the road I was on, and I sped up to catch them. It was the Bicycle's Inc. Racing team, clearly at the tail end of their 65 mile Saturday ride, and not going too fast at this point, if I caught up with them. I rode with them for about 1/2 mile and then in switching gears, lost my chain and had to stop to put it on --losing about 200 yards in the process. I toyed with the idea of letting them go, but then the thought of drafting them all the way home took over, and like the runner who has fallen in the race in Chariots of Fire, I got on my bike and with a furious charge caught up to them, again, and settled in for a nice ride home as the wind was at our back and it's slightly downhill. Pretty soon the group was doing 27 mph, which is pretty fast for me, but I held on without issue. It was worth the effort I had expended to catch up.

Got home feeling stronger than when I had started, which is always good.