Breeder of Champions: 5/13/07

All met at Tawse's around 5am, we loaded up and headed north. Of course there was an Oasis stop involving breakfast and additional caffeine. We reached Schuler's place and got preferred parking, unloaded breakfast, loaded the van bags, etc. I'd like to thank SRAM, my Ed, and Jose the ace follow car driver / master mechanic, for allowing me to hang in their group, and especially for some very sweet rollie rollie love in the form of SRAM service Zipp 404's for the journey. Roll call included - Tawse, Ritzler, King, Gatto, Feltz, Tom, Bos, Alex, Zellman, Macedon, McKenny, and a few SRAM invites including the fat kid. The roll out was gentle, we had a head / cross headwind all day on the way to Madison, and i was eating like a fiend to keep up on my energy. I took 1 - 5 min pull on the was out, and 1 - 5 min pull on the way home. Thanx to Jose for some great bumper time in the longer headwind sections. Nothing like seeing our group of 20 + guys tagged on the back of a SRAM wrapped Volvo wagon cruising at 40kph. So one of the jokes of the day that kept Ritzler and i laughing for a few hours was that i had a footlong waiting for me at madison, and a subway sandwich as well. Lunch was good, brief and we raided the van for fluids, then raided Jose's Wagon for balm reapplication of all kinds. Drop of a layer of clothing and off to the races. We have mastered the art of a quick lunch and rolling out ahead of the group to help digest lunch and helps the fat kid not have to slay myself on the rollers going out of town. We reached the BP station at the 200km mark, and all had a small sigh, as this is a key point in the ride, as we all knew all we had was a traditional wednesday night ride left to make it home. From there, there was always a chance to be caught, but i never had a doubt of making the full finish from that point. It was nice to break the barrier i completely imploded at last year. The group had some spirit on the roll in, and despite the dropping temperature, we were all happy to be on Blue Mound road alone in front of the groups behind. Scott's picture showed my hug from Ed this year was received in the parking lot after a full finish. We packed up out stuff, and loaded the cars, thanked the drivers and Schuler for having us up again. Just as we rolled out, the skies opened up and poured. Good thing we cut lunch short!

Bone ride stats from Richie
255km
8:20 wheels turning
35min lunch stop
2:25 spent not pedaling
161W ave power
3445kj

Smoooooot - OUT