Fantastic Team Ride!

It was amazing outside today, and we enjoyed the weather immensely! Almost all of Team Belladium came out to ride today, the same route we'd ridden January 30. Definitely one of my favorite routes, especially since it contains 4 sprint signs! I didn't win any of them, hardly contested half of them, but that's because I decided to be aggressive and make something happen rather than wait for someone else to make the first move. That's not the way to win a sprint, and I know that, but I was having fun nonetheless.

One sprint sign, sprint #3, is missing, somewhere on Peytonsville Road or Arno Road

Our super-fast ride was interrupted by a train with no engine blocking an intersection. We waited for a small group that had fallen off, then picked up our bikes and carried them across the tracks to the other side of the road. Jon snapped a picture that is not very high quality here (came from his phone, texted to Parri, then posted on FB), but you get the general idea of what we looked like!

My Garmin says we did 30.9 miles, 1:37 total time, 19.1 avg (38.2 max), 1,862 cal, 163 HR (193 max) (January 30: 1:43:19, 33 miles, 19.2 avg (35 max), 1,970 cal, 158 HR (189 max)). However, the route is nearly 33 miles (I didn't start my watch until after the first sprint) and we soft-pedaled for at least 1 mile or 2 after the train incident. Given the massive headwind for more than half the ride, that was a fast ride. My average HR was somewhere around 163, and I was working hard. Unfortunately, I couldn't pull through on any of the hills—I could stay with the group but couldn't get up to the front and was frustrated. Then I got dropped on a hill about 6 miles from Lisa's house. I rode 1 mile of that with Gerry and another guy but then rode the remaining 5 by myself in no man's land. I could see the group in front of my the entire time but just couldn't catch them. One of me will never match or beat 10 of them. Then, of course, we celebrated Todd's birthday with some great food!