So i was super pumped about Bone Ride this year. I had some great miles, feeling pretty fit, dropped a bunch of weight, and even a decent race under the belt already.
Has a great a SRAM crew heading up - Tawse, Bos, King, Feltz, JP, Lyle, danger Dan, and sweet Pete.
Forecast was top notch - starting temp in the low 70's, high in the 80's. Then there was the wind. WSW winds in the 20's with gusts in the 30's.
Rollout from Tom Schuler's house was lighthearted and mellow. Some herky jerky with all the stoplights and high turnout was to be expected, so it was high alert for the first hour.
My weaponry was the 'Dale with my tubbie 404's to keep the train rollin. The SRAMmies had some serious hoops to combat the wind. Tawse was riding Lenny's Cervelo and was sporting an 808 rear with a 404 front. Very slick.
Once we got out of town the severity of the cross-headwind was felt. Very quickly i realized there would be no hiding today, and it would be 4.5 hrs of gutterball just to make it to Madison. General Bone diet is a bunch of bars and gels on the way up, and usually 2 bottles gets you through, maybe a topoff somewhere at a red light. The warm temps were welcome, but i realized that by about halfway there, I was done with a bottle and a half. Ed was the man as always in the SRAM Volvo and usually i can get a quick bottle serviced at a red light. This year he was swamped with takers at all of the convenient locations. I had to get one fillup and chase with a very small group for about 10 minutes to get back into the fold. Several matches burnt there. Several occasions i had to pump out 500w+ to close gaps or to move up to get out of stupid situations. More matches.
The effort took its toll and i was popped off about 10 miles outside Madison, got a bumper ride for some of it. One funny situation, after a bumper ride and seeing that ED needed to move for traffic, the group i was with fanned out, as Ed came back into position, 3 dudes were parked on the bumper already. I looked at the guy closest to me and said 'move'. He was like "what the?" i told him, "see my jersey ( i was fully kitted in SRAM).. thats my bumper". Not long after that i was completely wrecked and pedaled into town solo and cooked.
There was a major inner battle in my head as to if i was going to attempt to even start to head back with the group, or in the car. My ego won. I got some food down, a few cokes, and started to feel a bit better. I can say that this year i was more wasted GETTING to Madison, that in the years I have finished the entire ride.
So we rolled out. It took me about 20 minutes to get close to comfortable again, but i was doing ok. It was less of a crosswind that I anticipated, and we were rolling at about 30-34kph pretty easily. Not bad, on pace for a 4 hour return.
Out of town we caught a section of tailwind and the natives were restless to prove how fast they could go in a tailwind. There was a rotating paceline that started, and it accelerated almost 20kph! WTF? i was popped off on the first rise, several others were dangling, and the group of 18 that we had was left with about 5 guys working. Dumb. Ed came by and i jammed my elbow in the door jam of the Volvo, he gave me a 60kph return to the back of the group with instructions to tell them to slow the hell down! The group listened and we were bar to bar again. Not bad. I recomposed myself, thought positive thoughts, and had convinced myself that I was going to finish this year again!
There is a BP gas station at 200km, which is a key landmark. Its a nice stop for a coke, it means there is only about 55km left to the end, and a huge mental hurdle.
Unfortunately i was no longer able to tell myself I was going to finish, sadly, i packed it in and got in the Volvo.
The group pushed on, and from the backseat of the Volvo, i was able to see the groups form deteriorate, and see who was close to detonating themselves. I was very happy to have jugs of water on hand and to be able to provide bottle service on the fly for the guys, which is a huge benefit with 130 miles in your legs.
Kudos to Tawse for finishing on very limited riding this year, and to King who rode the Bone on a BORROWED bike! He most definitely had an inner battle going on to ride or to stop, for most of the ride.
Bone Ride 2010 is only 355 days away - May 19, 2010
