Sunday Options: Milly's Riders...

The Sunday option ride this week fell to Milly's Riders p/b Squadra Folgore. A little pow-wow among those of us at the start, and the Tuna Canyon Loop was determined to be the route of the day. This very easily could have been a day off the bike for me; the past two days my legs have felt drained, while my back has been leaving unfriendly memos about worse to come if I didn't back off a bit. I have come to accept these things at this time of year - as I ramp training efforts up there is this little disconnect between effort and reality. Eventually things even out, but in the meantime...

so, I was pleasantly surprised with how deeply I was able to dig. That's the thing about the group, isn't it? Unless I go into pursuit mode when I notice someone up the road, I tend to ride within a certain comfort zone. Nothing unusual, I know; it takes that group, the dynamics of competition between riders to force me out of that zone. And that is what happened - whether chasing Claudio before the Tuna climb, keeping pace with Waldi to the top, or [sucessfully] trying to keep my gap at col d'hopital - I was pushed beyond what I would have otherwise done.