Perhaps it was the weather getting a little colder, or perhaps it was the fact that classes are in full swing. Either way, turnout for today's ride was less than it has been.
Nevertheless, Chris, Will C, and I decided to kick it old school... and by kick it old school, I mean ride really really hard.
A few weeks ago, I bragged to Charlie that I'd just set a personal record on the Mt. Washington climb, beating my old time by a full 30 seconds. Today I rode the climb even faster... 38 seconds faster! But I still finished well behind Will and Chris!!!
We were all pretty hurt at this point, so we rolled slowly over to Mt. Horeb rd, where I darted ahead to position myself for some photographing.
Once past the climb, we agreed that running an individual time trial (for lack of enough riders to do a TTT) would be a waste of time, and boring. So we did a 3-man TTT all the way to the end of the road, with nice short pulls to keep the speed high. Will's aerobars didn't exactly hurt, either.
The final climb was Morning Glory rd. The tactics here were simplified by the small number of riders, but the (relatively) gentle grade of the road kept the speed high. I sat at the front, keeping the pace high in the hopes that nobody would have the legs to attack. Will's efforts on the first climb proved to be his undoing on this last climb, and soon only Chris was on my wheel. He came around with about 700m to go, but was unable to drop me. Still, the pace was now up around 25 mph, and we were still climbing. I tried to sprint around him, but the wind was brutal. I ducked back into the draft, then surged again with 100m to go, finally cracking Chris.
Usually, I pedal down the descent to get my speed way up, but today I sat up and coasted the whole way, gasping for air. Yowza.
With a 3rd and a 1st for me, a 1st and 3rd for Will, and two 2nds for Chris, we each got 8 points. Furthermore, Will's joke-cracking while he tortured Chris and me on the first climb earned him a -12 point penalty; however, Will squared his score, then called "no backsies!" in anticipation of my rebuttal. Also, for tearing up the first climb (seriously, that was the fastest I've seen anyone climb that thing), Chris and Will both get 2 bonus points.
Thus, the score is now:
Will C. ....38
Don........37
Chris......33
Charlie....17
Steve......10
Kyle........8
Ted.........5
Will is in the Rutgers World Champion jersey, and looks resplendent in rainbow.
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