Coffee and Lies # 181 Revving the engine

I anticipated that the finial Coffee and Lies might be exceptionally “frisky.”  With many of our clan peaking for the Italy trip, Fitness and Freshness were forecast to be high.  With a thousand paranoid thoughts running through my head I had promised myself I would not “engage” when things hotted up. 

McWoodie and Moonlight Burnside had made no such commitment and sure enough as soon as we rolled southbound on Mercer it was on.  The Wizard of Coz jumped on and seeing that nobody else was partaking in the folly I grabbed his wheel. 

McWoodie was driving the pace and he was like a kid running to a ride at Disneyland.  I powered along in the draft and after a quick paceline rotation Coz pulled off.  I could say I held on but it would be more accurate to say I sat in. 

Drafting Doggie-style

A few long minutes later I waved and pulled off.  I wanted to touch Z5 so I didn’t feel  like a failure.  Soon Einmotron pulled up and I grabbed his wheel.  We took a couple turns and when I slowed to let him go, he backed off and once I was back in place he picked it up again.  I needed a bit of hard effort today and he was making sure I met my goal.

We continued thus to the hill and I sprinted up the hill with the intention of then taking it easy to the finish.  Einmotron must have kept it real on the hill and when I looked over my shoulder expecting to see him when instead I was scooped up by the train of Coz, El Chefe’ and the Silver Bullet.  We took a few rotations and I was feeling like I was about to be dropped.  I held on for one more cycle.

I hung on and as we neared the finish I decided to blow out the laundry and I went hard with about 200m to go and didn’t look back.  I had the feeling that nobody was chasing but I kept pushing anyway. 

On the way back I was cooked and El Chefe, El Jefe and I formed a Gruppeto and just kept a steady pace.  

Time to R-E-L-A-X

When we were seated and savoring the Coffee and Lies portion of the ride many of us we thinking ahead to Italy.  Some of our clan were battling the gravel of Ellensburg.  Some were preparing for the week ahead.