Westerville Report!

Had not visited the Westerville Wednesday ride out of the Hoover Dam yet this year so, arrived, signed in and scanned the parking lot for anyone I might know.  Denni was there so that's good and there was his friend Dan, then Poobah pulls in, Franz, Corvair, then some strong cyclists show up, Billy C, Rob Rhodes, Mike Rea, Doug Mc, Danny A, lots of the usual suspects.

Above, Meredith, Mike and Todd.  Then Todd requests that I begin cataloging him groping willing women so .......

......Meredith reluctantly agrees to be humiliated while Mike scrambles to exit the image.....

......then Amanda agrees, who could be next?  Be on the alert if A. You are a woman or man, B. Todd is in the vicinity, C. I am hovering with camera in hand.

Only because Dennis was overwise occupied did he avoid Todd.  So, the A group gets called out and only 7 of us leave, Billy, Dennis, Dan, Mike, Joe N, Todd and Rob R.  Not sure what happened to the 2-3 other A's.  I think they went off on their own route, probably an easy ride preparing for the Thursday New Albany ride.  As we worked our way across the Hoover Dam and the gates, Joe dropped into the aero position and disappeared.  The rest of us got on to Red Bank and hit the only real hill o the route, right on Gorsuch, left on Miller Paul, on to Longshore and then right on Hartford Foundation where we reached the northern most limit of the route.  We had been pausing to regroup as none of us, save one, knew the route so our average hovered only at 20mph.  Some where in there, Dennis noted that it appeared we were catching Joe so Billy suggested we work hard and catch him.  I instead suggested we ride together and tell our best dirty jokes.  I lost so off we went with Billy drilling it and maintaining a 400+ watt output for an extended period.   

Some of us got shelled but Mike and I hung on and eventually, Billy slowed, motioning us to pull forward.....here we realized the guy on whom we were gaining was not Joe but just some guy out for a ride.  We stopped, checked the map, figured we were still on the route, regrouped with 5 of us and kept going south.  Billy spent the majority of the time on the front and began to become dispirited when he realized guys like Dennis and I were still hanging on.  Billy weaved to throw us out of the slipstream and yet we hung on like dogs with a bone, Billy surged and paused, surged and paused, Billy threw everything plus the kitchen sink at us yet we clung.  We could see the lactic acid building in his legs and his computer was dinging as he exceeded limits for heart rate, watts, effort and finally, we cruised into the parking lot.  38 miles, 750' of climbing and a measly 21.6 avg due to all the map checks and regrouping, which were welcome pauses.  I kind of like going out with much stronger cyclists who are clueless about the route.
.