The Ringer Brings a Ringer to Canal

Cat 2 Gabe showed up again and brought Nathan, another ringer.  When a Cat 2 ringer brings a ringer he was probably the last one not making the TDF team of RadioShack or something. 

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Da Boss-Lite, Craig Butler, was a little miffed when I told him I had heard some talk at Thursday's New Albany ride that seemed to indicate some of the New Albany thugs thought Craig was ducking them by not showing up last Tuesday.  As one of Craig's staunchest defenders, I assured those making the claim it was certainly possible that Craig was ducking but it would have been kind of out of character, sort of.

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Dennis, Style Queen, continues to model outrageous cycling outfits tied to bike and tire colors. 

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Good turnout of 50+ with a solid group of 18-19 A's that included Jared of New Albany, Mitch Tallen making his first appearance, Da Boss-Lite, Steve O, Walker dude, Jeff S, Gabe & friend, Keith, Dennis, Randy Brown, Young Phenom Logan, Grand Poobah, Paul Stock, Claude, John S & others.  Curiously not there was Mark C who after last week may have followed through on his threat to take up fishing. There was a strong group of B cyclists too with Kayla Starr (recently elevated to Cat 3), Nathan, Ryan R, Kevin H, Mark V, etc...

So, we left the parking lot and my goal was just to hang in there until the #33 overpass and then until Carroll Northern where we made a left.  Here, I rode alongside Gabe and told him I was going to hang onto his wheel and see if he could drop me.  Overhearing this, someone told me to shut my piehole. No worries, Gabe was out tonight for a tempo ride, having already ridden earlier in the day and so he spent most of the time chatting with others who were breathing too hard to respond.  After making a right on Basil Western, the intensity picked up but I survived to Baltimore with a 23mph avg and Grand Poobah took the sign sprint too.  

We got over to Canal St and continued east, all the way to Lake where we hung a right.  By now our numbers were down to 13-14 with some well timed stop signs helping to keep the group together. There were also some really odd moves, such as attacking before stop signs, attacking at a railroad track, attacking just after someone took a pull....all this caused those who did take pulls to do so somewhat conservatively so they could respond.  At some point, Butler looked over at me and expressed surprise I was still with the group.  We headed west on Carroll Eastern, hung a left on Millersport then Marquette and Fremar.  Here, Butler had just taken a pull and as we approached a stop sign I asked if that was the best he could do.  He's really more the "Boss-Lite" right now.   

We got onto Ginder and worked our way back to Carroll Eastern.  By now we had gone 35 miles and I was feeling pretty good.  Then, at mile 35.1 I was not.  An attack was initiated, my electrical grid went into brown out and I was done with a 22mph avg, roughly, since my antiquated Garmin had shut off a couple of times so exact average is unknown.  The group cruised through Carroll and made a left on Kaufman but I stayed straight on Winchester and then got back on the route by making a left on Benson and a right on Slough and here the group caught we at the base of the big climb.  Butler was leading the way but Paul Stock jumped from the back and just blasted up the hill well ahead of a charging Gabe and others.  I was concerned about Butlers unresponsiveness to the attacks so upon arriving in the parking lot I inquired if he had even been in the top ten at the top.  

They finished with 46 miles and a 21+ avg, I finished with 44 miles and a 20.7 avg and 1300' of climbing for a relatively flat route by Canal standards.

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