Dodging Lightning Bolts.

The title of this post pretty much sums up the Tuesday night group ride. Weather was pretty crazy in all directions. Heading out of town there was like 10 of us heading into rain, thunder, and sky to ground lightning bolts. The crazy thing is that we never got rained on...'nor did we come across a wet road..'nor did Kisch get struck by lightning since he was the tallest out there. Although he did stay pretty low on the bike. It looked like our route to Dike and Hudson was a good call.

I felt pretty good tonight, riding off the front with Kisch south out of Dike into the 18 mph headwind. We got away, and barely kept our lead till we turned to head towards Hudson. My breating was very labored and it f'n hurt like no other. I was riding at the red-line. If I would have up'd the pace a bit more, I would have popped and spent the rest of the night off the back.

When we head East for the final 6 miles to Dike, I felt awesome after my HR settled down. Kruger, Fry, Kisch, Houlihan, and myself kept a rotating pace line while some of the other riders just sat off the back. With about 2 miles to go Doug jumped off the front only to be caught by Kruger. Then I put it all on the line to pull the group up to them. I did, then was shot out the back when Kisch made a break for Hudson.

We all regrouped in Hudson for what i thought would be a casual pace back to Waterloo. But Fry had other thoughts as he attacked the group. Shortly he was reeled in by Kisch and myself. With the 3 of us we had less than a mile to go. I set a tempo down the road at 26 mph, only to have Fry make a break for the Stop Ahead sign. But Kisch threw down the gauntlet to take the sprint.

I hope I have these legs this weekend. I felt fresh and spunky. The rest of the week will be pretty low key with light riding and gear preperation.

Sorry for the lack of pics. There would have been some amazing shots of the weather tonight, but I left the camera at home in fear that I might get caught in a gully-washer.

One final note....
I am still a firm believer that a 2 hour road group ride/race hurts more than a 24 hour solo mtb bike race any day. Oh yes it does! Well, atleast in Iowa anyway.

Check it! I got a little Trans-Iowa pic action going in the Velonews Photo Contest (7th row, far right). I am so not Graham Watson.