Riding Season

Damn. Riding after 6PM is rough. Far too many people out and 80% of them are morons.

All in all a good hard ride. The best part was the last few miles. I'd been barreling through the lumbering masses, weaving in and around people and setting my lines, looking for openings (I went to public school, I can navigate crowded spaces well.) I finally found a good enough opening where I torqued it up to 22MPH or so and was starting to get a head of steam on. I was going for a few dozen yards when a flash of blue blows past me on the left. It was a guy in full US Postal kit, right down to the Trek Madone he was riding. I dropped a few gears and got right on his wheel and we were going at a great clip of 31MPH or so for a nice bit.

When the inevitable brood of mouthbreathers slowed us down he did something weird. He started pointing at his rear wheel. I was a few lengths back and waiting for things to open up to follow him through when he got more insistant with his pointing. I finally got what he meant and closed the gap. I yelled "got it" and he negotiated the both of us through the jello-like group. We picked up the pace again and at this point I was stoked.

Usually, what I was doing would be considered bad form with someone you don't know. They call it "wheel sucking." When you draft behind another racer you expend 25 or more percent less energy. You take turns "pulling." This guy was in waaaay better shape than me and with his help I was able to ride a greater tempo for a longer period of time than usual. We got to a fork in the road that breaks out into a flat and a hill. We stomped up the hill and since I wanted to ride more of the same route (stupid, actually) I yelled my thanks and descended the other side to complete my ride while he took his ride wherever it was he was going. I've seen him a few times and now I feel like I have permission to fall in with him. I look forward to returning the "favor" and pulling him for as long as I can. That was a really cool experience.

Oddly enough, on the way to the route I passed Mayor Bloomberg giving a speech to a local political club and pulled over to hear the rhetoric. That shrill moron Curtis Sliwa was with him and as I pushed off I said to a security "Sliwa is f*cking everywhere, huh?" The jarhead almost spat as he said "you have no idea."