Full Bottle Ride

AKA the Tuesday Night World Championships!

I hadn't done the Tuesday night Nuchols Rd ride in a long time... the behavior of people on the "B" ride had gotten so bad that I just couldnt stand to be out there. Between the one guy who continuously threw GU packets on the ground, to another who decided to push his way into a pace line, to the guy on the single speed with no brakes who would float in and out of pace lines ... it got to be too much.

But last night I was back. Pulling into the Y, the A++ ride was getting ready to leave. It looked just like the 40+ race at any of the local crits, Natures Path, Natures Pearl, JRVS, Carytown Bikes... and everyone was pulling wheel bags out of their cars. Yes, indeed, this is a Zipp Speed Weaponry kind of ride.

Thats ok, I was going to do the A+ ride. 21 mph average vs. 24 mph average. We rolled out with about 15 riders who were all capable of 21 mph, so it looked like it was going to be a good ride.

Hah! Mixed in the group were people who got to the Y late and missed the A++ ride. By the time we hit 5 miles we were picking up the carnage from said A++ ride. So very quickly, our ride became the A++ ride. Fine with me, but the real difference between the ride is the niceties of the 10 second rule at stop signs on the A+ ride which unfortunately also flew out of the window. I left my computer at home on purpose, but you could see from the strain on some of the faces that life was getting seriously tough for people. When I looked at water bottles... all full.

Half way out the expected happened. The cell phone rang. I knew it was going to happen, work doesn't end for me when I leave the building. Three phone calls later and I knew that I was on my own. Lucky for me, I live out in that neck of the woods and was able to just ride the hills and then head on home. Dead tired, but happy.

Cliff came by to drop off my clothes and told me that right after I had to take the call that the carnage got serious. People were still coming in after he had been back, changed, got a coke and was pulling out of the lot. And they all had full water bottles.

Tuesday night world championships, yep, they're baaaackkk.