Tuesdays

I owe Tuesdays, and more specifically, racing Tuesdays at LLNL a bit of gratitude. I mean, without them I would have never become the cyclist I am today and probably, well maybe, never have raced a bicycle.

Here in Livermore we have a 17 mile loop (with another ~6 each way for warmup and cooldown) that we like to hammer. It is literally a race with much prestige for coming away with a victory. For years it was dominated by Billy and Steve, but they have since moved on and no longer torture us with there relentless attacks and fierce sprinting abilities. There is still a group of us that were trained by these two so Tuesdays are still really, really fast.

Today was no exception. And, with a 10-20mph NE wind...carnage was sure to happen.
The big players. There are plenty more out there that will go unmentioned here for space sake.

• Kevin - Wells Fargo, CAT2
• Dan - Kovarus, CAT3. Ex-teammate of mine and good buddy
• Reed - Well Fargo, CAT3, but often wears his old gear to get a better workout
  
• Stan - Morgan Stanley, CAT2. 20+ year vet
• Jeff - Wells Fargo, CAT3. Fasssst
  
• Brian - non-racer, can pull for hours on end
• Big Sean - the slightly faster version of Brian
• Mike V. - Wells Fargo. Can drive a break like no other
• Metz - Now Direct CAT4. So close to being a difference maker.
• Ed - InfoVista - uber fit, new to racing with huge potential
• Pat - VSRT. Off and on, but when ON...very fast
  

Like I said, there are many others, and I will add names later, but these are the main guys. Not everyone shows up everyday, but most people do most days. Today was without Big Sean and Pat.

Dan, Jeff and I got out early to get some warmup in, which is nice because sometimes its good to attack from the gun....which is what I did today. Well, not exactly attack, but put in a huge pull to thin the herd a bit in the tail/cross wind section. After that, I went up the road with Metz for about 3 miles trying to maintain our gap, but everyone was too fresh so they brought us back.

Fortunately, my wily teammate Kevin countered, but it got strung out with hardly anyone losing contact. Kevin and I traded attacks for a while including a mean one by him up Prime hill, but Dan was attentive and brought them all back...until Windmill. A frustrated Dan allowed me to attack with Ed in tow up Windmill where we were never to be heard from again. I knew we were gone when I looked back after the bumps and there were only 4 guys attached to the second group and one of them was Kevin.

From there is was elemental as Ed and I did a nice 50/50 mix until I attacked him with 1K to go. He couldn't quite respond so I took out my first Tuesday win in a Wells Fargo kit.

It was fun, kJ produced was high, and fitness will surely improve.

Can't wait for Merco...