Feb 4 - the 300k paceline

Whew. That was a personal record -- 10:49 for 300k. Last year the same ride took me 12:59 -- but then again it was raining last year and I rode alone.

We started off in a large group and I was riding along chatting with Phil Creel -- veteran of many Shenandoah 1200 rides -- not realized that the group was splitting. When I did, it was too late, the front group being a good mile ahead. I pulled my bunch for 12 miles into the 31 mile Control, got my card signed and rode out with the lead group. No, that's not quite correct, I chased down the lead group.

That group had Hamid and Paul and several others numbering 8-10. A fellow on a fixie (not Paul) pulled through about mile 85 -- what a man ! -- and I can only assume that he'd been pulling that first 31 miles as well. From there the speeds increased, as the paceline moved with the "guts" of the one in front. It increased even more in the segment between the Control at 107 and the lunch Control in a park at 129. I burned myself up in that last segment trying to keep up with one particular fellow who tended to pull for a long time and at speeds of 22-24. Others pulled at 20-21. It's amazing what a difference 2 mph makes.

I left the lunch before the rest to give my legs a rest as well as to get away from the no-see-ums. They caught up to me a little less than 10 miles later, moving faster than my 16-18 into the wind. Paul called out 20-21 as they went by and I hopped onto the back.

Into the wind at 19-20 I could have managed but that same fellow wanted to push that to 22-23. He's very strong. Even drafting I couldn't maintain that forever. Had we used fixed distances or times for switching leads, I could have gritted my teeth ... but he would hang on there for a long time and there was no break.

25 miles from the end (186), I couldn't hold the wheel ahead of me and waived the person behind forward as I slipped back. Hamid dropped back too along with another -- Terry ? -- and Rachel, who'd been pulling and got caught up in the gap. It's hard to say whether she could have stuck with the group until the end -- perhaps so -- but Hamid, Rachel and I finished together. The other fellow dropped back further.

We finished up at 3:49 p.m., great time from our 5 a.m. start. The leads, including Paul, finished "about 45 minutes" earlier according to one of the group. That seems like an exaggeration, but who knows.

With such an early finish, I got home early too. It was early enough that I could shower, eat and have a snooze before Dick Felton called me from the Ontario Randonneurs awards dinner. That was a scheduled call since I "won" the award for the most brevet miles in 2011, world wide, while Stan won for most Ontario rides. Dick tried to use Skype but his signal wasn't strong enough. Too bad ... I'd donned my PBP t-shirt for the occasion !

This morning I woke up at 4am, went back to sleep, woke up at 6:40 ... and jumped out of bed to dress and have coffee before 7am mass. I was still pretty shaky and decided to drive the car, not the Harley, since the car doesn't depend on my sense of balance :).

Speaking of the car, it's a delight, feeling new. I'm going to get at those rear brakes, just because, although I probably have 10,000 miles or more before they'd be worn down to the sensors. After that, it needs an oil change.

TLC for the car has been proceeding apace ... now my bike needs some TLC ! Handlebar wraps askew showing the bars beneath, dirty, front wheel out of true -- yikes -- people will start talking !

Onward !