It's a hard knock ride....for me

I went on the Wednesday fast ride today with the Purdue team. They weren't kidding around. We did 40 miles in under 2 hours. With about 7 miles to go I just ran out of gas, and tried to drop back out of the group. They wouldn't let me drop. The leader (an undergraduate who is on some pro bike team based in Chicago) came back and told me to stick on the last person's wheel and to to pedal harder. I literally felt like I was holding onto the group by a piece of string that was just waiting to break apart.

I'm glad they made me stay with them since I made it to the end of the ride with the group. I'm sure I looked a little pathetic, but at least I finished. When I got home I looked at my bike computer and saw that our top speed was 33.8 miles per hour. On the flats in the country, the paceline was usually going around 25 mph. It's good to know that my bike can go that fast.

I also learned how to do a rotating paceline. Basically, the bikers go in a circle. Once you are at the front of all the riders, you pull to the side and fall back. It was pretty fun doing some technical things with good riders. I'm guessing that my lack of handling skills made them nervous.


Oh... I bought a new bike toy. It's a bike computer that has lots of little gadets on it (including cadence). One of the guys in the club sold it to me used for 10 dollars. When I went to look at equivalent models at the bike store (I had to go, to have them fix a broken spoke), they were 44 dollars. I feel like my Dutch sense served me well.