Haines Point - ~32 miles; Avg speed (19.8 @ the Point); (13 overall post crash)

Okay ... here is my attempt to start logging my miles! It's a little late as the summer season is almost over, but my goal is to continue through the winter this year so I can hopefully start whipping some of the other guys on the Tuesday night rides!

Last night I decided to throw caution to the wind and brave the pelotons down at Haines Point. Every Tuesday and Thursday night the local race teams gather to work on speed and sprints. I can usually hang with the group for the first few laps before I bonk. I surprised myself last night though as I first caught up and passed one of the top riders from the Bike Rack team (who subsequently sown shifted and dropped me like a bad habit at the end of my pull) then hooked onto the peloton and ended up catching and passing the front pack. Granted they'd been riding pretty hard prior to me latching on, but I did catch them only a third of the way into their lap, so hooking on and then beating the lead group was pretty impressive (to me at least). Needless to say, some were who were not as psyched as I to see some dope without a race kit blowing them out of the water. It funny; I tried to chat with one of the lead riders (some older dude w/o a helmet) but he had ZERO interest in speaking with me. I really never grasped how some of these guys take themselves so seriously ... it's not like their top national competitors. I digress.

On the second lap with the peloton I was pissed by the entire pack. I was feeling a bit exasperated until I realized that I had nearly caught back up by the half-way point. The majority of the riders who had blown by me had now "blown up". It was quite satisfying to rocket past all the club posers and catch the back up with the faster pack. Guess I'm not as out of shape as I had thought.

I ended up doing a few more laps by myself without the group as the peloton had already started to break up. At about mile 26, I decided I would ride one last lap and head home. After passing the majority of the riders left on the road (not that impressive as most were only going about 19 mph) I decided to wind down and pull to the left. As I was merging left one of the riders I had passed decided to pass me on the left. Not the best idea as we collided. At first it appeared as if I would pull out of the mess, but I tightened up to much and turned my wheel too hard. Ass over tea kettle ... some road rash, a bent right break and a nicked seat. Not bad ... thank goodness I was only going about 22 when I hit the ground, it could have been a lot worse. We exchanged a few expletives before cooler heads prevailed and we both made sure that we were both okay (of course he had not dumped it ... bastard ... half kidding). He was very apologetic and a bit shaken up. I brushed off, checked the bike, and was back on my way. Up until that point I was averaging around 19.8. Like an idiot I did not check my stats before I reset my computer (it was bugging out after the crash), so I'm not really sure how many miles my ride actually was. After the reset, the cpu read 3 miles with an avg mph of 13. That was for my ride home. Oh well. All in all a good ride minus the crash. Now I'll have to see how much it's going to cost me this weekend when I take it into the shop.

With this ride, I'm up to about 59 miles for the week. Hoping to get some miles in for tonight or tomorrow.

Life can really deal some shitty hands sometimes. Keep your head up Johnny, we're all thinking of you.