Here in Boise, we have a lot of strong riders. It's a really nice day out for the first time in a while, so a lot of those strong dudes came out for the Donnie Mac's Wednesday Night Dump Loop. Most of these guys were the 1-2 Bob's Team. Luckily, I'm on the same side as they are for the rest of the year, but on Wednesday nights, we get to have a little fun with each other. Adding to the chaos is that most of us have the same coach who told me that "From the first climb to the mormon church this is a race and you are attacking and going with moves and working with chase groups to get to the mormon church first." I assume that's what everybody else's TrainingPeaks told them too. Hence the Wednesday Night World Championship was on.
As usual, we cruised along Hill Road and BS'ed. Call that an extended neutral roll-out. Once we make the corner away from Hill and towards Seaman's Gulch, it's game on. The fast guys all gravitate to the front. The slow guys, well I don't really know, I'm already fixated on the hub in front of me. Josh Howard had a PowerTap; Joe Kafka had a Mavic; Shawn Mitchell's was very shiny. Usually, it's Hoene, John Rogers, whichever Bob's guys happen to show up, maybe a random guy, and myself. But today was a different day. A large group of us started suffering towards Hidden Springs. It was fast but consistent climbing. Then Josh attacked. A few of us went with that. Then I went off with the top of the hill in sight. I didn't really think that I'd be able to TT away from all of them to the church, but I hadn't been the first one over a climb all year so I went ahead and won a few imaginary KOM points.
The group caught me again as we entered Hidden Springs. There were a lot of them. The guys that I'd expect and a few that I didn't. Ben Monahan and Steve Henry are both new Bob's guys and coming along nicely. I look forward to crushing with them this summer. They were there. So was Josh and Joe and Jake and Mitchell and a few others. Like a said, a lot of strong dudes. We pushed into the wind until The Wall. I decided that I wanted to win again and I attacked. Josh came with. He started to attack, but I beat him to the punch. Hoene had magically appeared at that point and out-sprinted me up the hill, but I don't really count him since he'd been putzing along waiting for us for a while. He sat up at the top of the hill so I was off the front by myself again. That was exactly what I wanted. I knew I could keep going hard over the short, steep pitch that was next and bomb the OMC decent.
Then things went bad. I went hard down to the stop sign, looking as much as possible for cars. I got to the point that I became convinced that there was nobody coming and I could rail the corner safely. So I began railing. Then I saw the Subaru. I slammed on my brakes and she slammed on hers and I escaped with nothing more than an apologetic look on my face towards the driver. But I'd slowed down and I was unnerved.
The group caught me again at the bottom of the climb. They were going really fast and I was not. Just like that I was OTB. No rainbow jersey for me this week. Maybe next week. Or maybe a Tuesday Night Criterium World Championship. Or maybe a Tuesday Night Half Bogus World Championship. Or maybe a Thursday Night Time Trial World Championship. The pros are really missing out with their one WC in each race per year...
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