Justin bumped the pace right away, and at every intersection he and Luke would sprint off the front at the green lights, leaving me fighting it out with the wind just hoping to not fall back any further. He and Luke would then sit up and wait, and I would pedal by, still sitting in the wind!
We got to the first actual bit of rise and I hadn't had much recovery from another short stint. Off the boys charged racing up the hill. I wasn't even halfway up as they crested out at the top. Super effort! I hit the top and we soft pedaled a short descent, then made a left turn directly into the wind. I sat on Justin's wheel as we both tried to recover, and then I made an attempt to bridge the gap up to Luke. I eventually made it on the flats before we started our next climb, and successfully sat on Luke's wheel for maybe two minutes. He put in an attack and while I did what I could to hold the wheel, off he went like a rocket ship. In my attempt to hold his wheel, Justin fell back from mine, not yet recovered from his huge effort on the previous hill.
It was going to be a tough ride!!
Once up on the plateau things chilled out a little bit, but due to the incessant headwind it was hard to keep the HR in check. Another really steep climb left me off the back and gasping for air!
Soon enough we hit the fast and furious 20% grade descent! Descending on the road bike is toooo much fun. We hit some rollers and I worked like mad to keep the boys in sight. Often it was fruitless, but still fun. Traffic was super light and we would bomb down a descent in aero tuck, then pedal like mad to make it up the next steep ascent.
Eventually got out to a fairly extended flat section
Then it's one more climb, and the big descent down to town.
We bid farewell to Luke and Justin and I headed over to BJ's for a large pizza and some beer. There was one piece of the pie left when the waitress commented she thought we would've saved half to take home. Um, no. When it comes to food - Justin and I don't mess around!! We finished off an entire BJ's large pizza between us. SO STUFFED. It was too good, though.
Ride stoke today is a bit on the EXTREMELY LOW side. Woke up all into it, and then the thunder storms hit in a serious way. It's been off and on all day since about 10 am with periods of heavy rain, hail, and lots of lightning brightening the dark sky. We've even had two brief power outtages at work.
Hoping the weather clears up just a tad for a post-work ride. I've got a ton to do this week and am low on sleep, but man do I want to get out and pedal!