Wednesday a.m.

I'm happy to report that I did not end up in the cornfield last night, unlike last week. Mike J. told me a trick about how to wear my watch so that things like last week would not happen again. I did it and it didn't. That's a good thing, although it is far less entertaining for everyone else. I'll have to come up with something different soon.

Last night was one of those nights that I hated to see end. The weather was on the cool side, and everyone was in a good mood and enjoying each other's company. We have had a great summer of riding. As it winds down, I think everyone is wanting to savor every moment and every mile.

We rolled out of the Park around 5:45 and had the easiest of rides out to Washington County. I looked down and often saw 20+ on my speedometer. This can only mean one thing: big tailwind. This, of course, means one thing for the return: big headwind. "What are areobars for anyway?"

We lined up in 2 groups, and I was somewhat surprised by the division. Greg, a friend of Mike's daughter, was there. He is on Purdue's tri team. He's young and fast, so only a few wanted a piece of that action. That's the way it seemed to me anyway. Bill, John, and Tim, along with Greg comprised the A team.

The A- or B line was made of up Troy, Dan, Jim, Mike, and me. You can read about the A team here. We took off with Mike pulling first. The wind felt pretty strong, but he had us up into the 23 mph range fairly quickly. He tapped and Jim took over, pulling us right into Bromer. Then it was my turn. The Bromer Hill. The Hill I had said I did not want. I got it and was going along at 22, then 21, then 20.

I saw a big spattering of "Amish horse exhaust" on the road ahead, so I moved over to the left to go around, while pointing to it. Troy, new to pacelining, thought I was finished with my pull, so he passed and hammered it. The line fell apart temporarily. Troy eventually came back and we got ourselves organized again.

Everything was fairly uneventful the rest of the way. Dan had a tremendous pull up Lost River Hill, but it about killed him. It about killed me as well. Dan tapped at the top of the hill, which is bad for him. It's hard to recover and get back on.

Dan and I fell off the back a little after cresting the hill. Mike and Jim slowed a bit, while Troy went ahead (I think). Dan and I managed to bridge the gap, and we all stayed together the rest of the way in. I had nothing left for the sprint, which was won by Dan.

The time at Wendy's was good. Food. Stories. All good things must come to an end, so we left and headed home. I wonder how many more nights we'll have? The days are getting noticeably shorter, and the weather patterns are changing.

Here's my Garmin data from the paceline.