There were several things that happened during the week (not related to the bike) that had me emotionally and mentally reeling. To make matters worse, the weather had me stuck on the trainer except for Monday. All I wanted to do was sit by the fire and read a good book!

I got on the bike anyway and started out from home to the new location for the start of the UWBL. Before I could even get down East North street I was beginning to feel warm. That was a good sign! Perhaps it wasn’t going to be as cold as predicted. Not only that, but I could see blue sky on the horizon. Hmmmmm. This might be good.

We rolled out with a slightly smaller group than some. Perhaps there were other people not really wanting to ride for 80 miles! I wasn’t complaining. A smaller group often means faster speeds and less trouble.

Jim had given me instructions not to participate in the sprints unless I did so in the final one. That being the case, I sat in most of the time, but did go off the front one time on a hill. It was my way of letting loose some of the pent up emotions from the week.

As I was doing so, Andy Baker came up beside me. “Are you doing intervals or something?” he asked. I replied, “Why not?” Sometimes I get really tired of the “Peloton Rules.” I just want to ride my bike. We weren’t sprinting. I was gaining no advantage. I just wanted to go hard for a couple minutes! What is wrong with that? I did my thing and then slowed to wait for the group.

Later Andy came up to explain that he just didn’t want me to shoot a wad in the sprints and then be frustrated at the end when I didn’t get a finish that I would like. I did appreciate his willingness to offer advice and I know what he said was true. However, I had to point out, “I’m not supposed to be going for sprints today.”

Well, the first sprint did come. I was a little frustrated. Not because I didn’t think I could mix it up, but because my team was trying to get some points for Eric. I felt like I was hanging back on them.

I decided I wouldn’t go hard, but would try to stay in contact with the leaders and finish as close to the front as I could. However, I started out pretty much toward the back. Moving my way toward the front I saw a group of my team mates sliding back. They had given what they could to stretch things out and here I was cruising along.

I then moved into a six man group with one of my team mates. Feeling that it would be good for me to help in someway, I motioned for him to get on my wheel and I would try to help move him closer to the front. He is a very strong rider and I thought just a little bit of help might get him in contention.

He didn’t follow. I was a bit confused at first. Then I looked ahead – I could now see the lead group. There was Eric and another POA rider. Ahhhh, I thought to myself. He didn’t follow because we had two guys up front. So, I backed off as well.

Later at the store stop, we were talking about how we were feeling. I joked, “I’ve got a lot — for about 30 seconds.” My team mate expressed he didn’t care for the way I worked in the attack. I explained that I went back because I realized the situation and didn’t want to pull the group up to our guys. Finally, I just rode away. Emotionally, I wasn’t ready to deal with this.

I think most people will tell you I want to learn. I will take advice. However, I’m not going to get run over. I’m willing to learn — just be willing to teach.

It was crushing. I’m sure all the other stuff of my week had something to do with it, but I felt like just riding off alone to home. Forget the team.

The back of the group is where I sat for sometime. Eric came up and put his hand on my back, “Don’t let the words get you, man.” He said, “We’ll get this stuff worked out.” I really appreciated that and it lifted my spirits a bit.

Before long, it was time for the next attack zone. This time I decided to forget my instructions (Forgive me, Coach) and try to help the team if I could (and hope I didn’t unintentionally do something I wasn’t supposed to). I found myself toward the front with some of my team mates including Rodney Dender.

As the two of us moved on the front I said, “Okay, what am I supposed to do?” He replied, “Just get in the line and hold a steady tempo while pulling through.” That is exactly what I attempted to do.

Cleve Blackwell was way off the front as I settled in with two other riders in front of me. They kept pulling, so I kept sitting on. Finally, they shifted over and I moved on point trying not to push too hard.

It wasn’t long before I noticed the gap to Cleve was dropping. I picked it up just a tad and then glanced back. There was a good sized gap. So, rather than sitting in no man’s land, I sped up to get behind Cleve.

Before long I felt the presence of some other riders. There were now about five of us and it appeared Andy Baker and Cleve were working together. I knew I wasn’t going to be there at the finish, but I wanted to stay with these guys until some of my team mates showed up.

Finally, they did and I knew that it was time for me to get out of the way. Still, I felt I had helped by keeping one of our kits up on the front and allowing the team to let others do the chasing. Even so, in the back of the mind I wondered if I had done the right thing. Let’s just say that I didn’t have a lot of mental confidence at that point! By the way, Eric won that one.

Now it was time for the final sprint of the day. This was the one I was actually supposed to get involved in IF I was going to mix it up in any of them. Earlier I had heard Rodney talking. He said, “Guys, if there is a break, let me go. I can stay with them and you guys won’t have to work so hard.”

Well, at the beginning of the attack zone, I found myself on the front. This was not where I planned to be. It wasn’t where the people around me planned to be either! They all disappeared. I just kept spinning along easily waiting for riders to come up with me. Not wanting to get freight trained, I began to ease into a tempo I thought would keep me safe.

Suddenly, Steve Sperry came flying around me. I expected more to follow, but no one did. Looking back, a gap had formed. I then looked ahead and thought, “Okay, I’ll go with Sperry and I’m sure I’ll get caught at some point. Rodney knows I won’t be able to hold it, so he will be in position to allow others to chase and then take over when he gets here.”

You know, I like Steve Sperry. He has always been very kind to me and when we’re out on the road, he gives me very good tactical advice. It was kind of neat to be up there with just the two of us taking the wind for each other.

“We’ve got to make it to the golf course before they catch us,” he explained. I did my best to help him accomplish that. Unfortunately, just before we reached it, we got caught. Once again it was Andy and Cleve towing some other riders. I was happy to see one of them was Rodney.

Rather than backing off, I tried to stay with the group so I could be there to help the odds with Rodney. I was starting to believe I could do it as we turned onto Highway 20. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that the transition onto that road can be tricky.

You have to climb up to the turn and then there is a short downhill before you go into a sweeping left turn that puts you (at least on this day) dead into a headwind. I tried to catch my breath for just a second as we made the turn and the other riders accelerated. Too late I tried to match it and a small gap formed as we went into the headwind.

It was over at that point. They were sooooo close, but I just didn’t have the juice to close it down. I realize now I should have just gone into the pain locker when we made that initial turn and hung onto the group until we all got into the wind together. At that point I could have been shielded and might have recovered a bit.

As it was, the second large chase group came past me. I let them go and watched the race unfold before me on the long stretch of straight road. I watched them cross the train tracks as two groups. Then they crested the hill that took them out of my view — still two groups.

By the time I crested the hill, the only riders I could see ahead were the ones that were spit out the back of the field. Later I learned that the second group was never able to close the gap. Rodney went on to lead out Sperry who took the win. Rodney did that because he knew he did not have the points to affect the overall lead.

You know. I am improving physically. I am doing things that I would have never dreamed of last year. Sure, I got dropped on that last attack, but I went farther than I ever have before and I was racing with the Pro-1-2 guys. I wonder what it will be like when I’m back with my Cat 4 brethren?

There in is my greatest weakness. I definitely have the power of a Cat 3 racer, but I have the tactical knowledge of guy who just moved up from Cat 5 to Cat 4. I’m still trying to get a handle on my bike handling skills and race knowledge.

At the same time, I don’t think I’m foolish — that would just be true if I kept making the same mistakes over and over again. I REALLY AM TRYING TO LEARN! Before the season is over, I hope it becomes obvious to more than just myself.

Reece is on third wheel going into the final turn... a little too hot.

After the race I talked with Reece and he told me what happened.  He felt he was in a very good position – the third rider back.  This is a good place to be because you are not on the front exploding, but not too far back to make up ground.

He was wanting to accelerate out of the turn to maintain momentum.  Throughout the race he had been able to pedal through this corner.  However, at those times he probably was not quite as aggressive in his lean.  This time his pedal hit the ground.

Its a pedal in the asphalt that lifts the rear wheel for the slide.

When that happens, you lose grip on your rear tire.  Consider that cyclists basically have a total of three square inches in contact with the tarmac.  That ain’t a lot and it doesn’t take much to make it even less.  When that happens you’re going for a ride!

Down he goes with Bill and Rodney taking evasive action.

Thankfully, you can see Reece’s momentum was forward.  So his slide continued primarily in that direction rather than out toward the outside of the turn.  In the above picture you can see Bill Short barely avoiding him on the outside while Rodney Dender is having to take an aggressive inside line to avoid the fallen rider.

Ouch, Reece was easily over 20 mph when he went down.

Yep, it could have been a lot worse.  Mostly Reece is hating that he didn’t get to see where that third wheel position would take him.  Going down is bad, but knowing you had a good finish in you and not seeing it happen is even worse.

No cyclists or bicycles were permanently damaged in the taking of these photos.  Reece will be up to ride again!  Thanks, Jake, for letting me post the photos here.  Keep up the good work behind the lens and on the bike.

The HOP was a little different since I decided that I wasn’t going to go very hard.  I moved to the back and watched how other riders would move to take control.  I might as well, on Meece Bridge I didn’t have a chance anyway.

When I replaced my chain last week, I didn’t replace my rear cassette.  Several of the gears in the cassette were worn to the old chain.  As we headed up toward the straight on Meece Bridge, my chain kept popping when I went under load.  I dropped to the rear of the field as I tried to find the cog that wouldn’t drop my chain.

It was a bit of a handicap for the rest of the ride, but at least I was up there to see some of the action as we continued.  Tyler was a happy man as he took Meece Bridge and then the quarry road.  I’ll take a little credit for that last one as I paced him on my wheel up much of the climb.

My biggest effort of the morning came leading out on the State Park Road sprint.  It took a long time to get organized, but I was able to pull the field for quite a while.  Unfortunately, I think I dropped the leaders off just a little too soon.  It was kind of fun to watch the sprint to the top from a distance.

Back at the shop John switched out my cassette and I was now good to go for the afternoon’s ride.  I went by the house to get down an egg salad sandwich before getting back on the bike to head over to Furman University where I planned to meet Reece Jackson (who had issued the invitation) and some of the other teammates on the POA Cycling Team.  It was a beautiful day and I was looking forward to spending some time with the guys.

I didn’t time things very well so I was really having to put some effort out to make sure I made it before they left.  Thankfully, I made it into the parking lot just as they were mounting their bikes to start the ride.  No opportunity to catch my breath – it was time to roll.

Hmmmm, I was starting to get a bad feeling about this.  Reece wasn’t there nor were a number of the other teammates.  The only rider in the group that was on my level was my teammate Billy White.

The three other guys on the ride were Eric Christopherson, Rodney Dender, and Darin Marhanka.  Then there was Billy White and me.  I kept telling myself, “It’s okay.  You can ride with these guys.”  Fact is, I know I could ride with these guys, only several things conspired to make this one of my worst days on the bike.

The three seasoned riders set a pretty fast pace in the beginning.  Billy and I were just trying to sit in and get used to the speed.  Then it came my time to pull through and take the front.  I was there with my teammate, Darin.  He was moving along enjoying the ride and asking me some questions about my son.  I was trying to stay with him and trying to control my breathe so I could answer him.

I’m not sure when it happened, but we were more than an hour and a half into the ride (for me it was about two hours from the time I left the house) when I started to feel bad feelings.  I had been sucking water and sports drink.  Still, I was feeling the power go out of my legs.  I needed something more, but all had was some blocs.  I had planned on this being a two hour ride – and it was looking like we were headed for four.

Breakfast was an egg muffin sandwich.  That was probably about 300 calories.  Lunch was that egg salad sandwich.  It was around 400 calories.  Hmmmm, 1000 calories plus the calories stored in my body don’t quite equal 6000.  However, that was where I was headed.

I decided I had to get something more in there, so I pulled out my package of blocs.  I had a bear of a time getting them open and finally had to take my hands off the bar to try to get into the thing.  Finally, I got one in my mouth as we were going downhill.  The problem is that opened a pretty large gap between the other guys and me.  I had to work to catch back on and that signified the end of my day.

From that point on I could stay with them – even at speed – as long as we were on the flats or a slight climb.  Any climb that required an extra effort left me pushing my legs to respond and causing me to drop off the back.  I would then ride at my own pace until I caught the others at a stop sign.

I kept telling them to go on without me.  I could find my way home from here.  We were near Caesars Head by this time.  They kept waiting for me anyway.  At least once I was glad.

Once we crossed over Highway 11, I started to hear an odd rattle coming from my bike.  I didn’t have too much time to worry about it because I was chasing.  However, now that I was alone, I noticed it even more.  It even kept getting worse.  Then I heard a “twang” and knew one of my rear spokes was broken.

Thankfully, it was easy for me get off and after catching my breathe, I got back on and continued.  The problem was that I wasn’t sure which way the others had taken.  About the time I thought I would have to pull out the GPS on my Garmin, Rodney came back for me.  They had taken a right turn I’m sure I would have missed, but with Rodney leading me I was back on track.

Once again I managed to stay in and keep up until we reached a significant hill.  By this time every stroke where I had to put out power I neared a cramp.  By the time I reached the top of this hill I was cramping.

The others rode on without me and I didn’t see them again.  I was glad!  The pain of the embarrassment of making them wait for me was worse than the pain in my body!  I would much rather suffer alone.

Finally, I made it to Marietta.  I stopped once more to refill with water and started off for Travelers Rest.  I kept envisioning the road ahead.  However, I had to stop that because there wasn’t much encouragement in that process.  I still had close to 20 miles to go!

Rolling through TR I looked down at my kit.  It had several lines of white all over.  It was the salt from my sweat.  My feet hurt.  My legs were cramping.  I fingers were getting tingly.  My rear wheel was wobbling and rubbing the brake pads even with the levers open.  I felt like if I drank another swallow of water or sports drink I was going to get sick.

I reached Old Buncombe Road and reached the point where I had to decide between two roads to home.  One way was a little longer and the other way was shorter but had more traffic.  I NEVER take the route with more traffic.  This time I would.  Traffic be hanged, I needed to get off this bike!

It wasn’t that far to home, but a couple times I almost stopped to call my wife to come pick me up.  “Hello, dear, I think I’m going to die.  Could you come pick me up?”  Of course, by this time I was talking in a hoarse whisper.

Finally I pulled into home.  Turns out a ride I thought might be 40 miles ended up being over 70.  Add that to the 30 plus miles I did in the morning and I had over 100 miles.  Even that isn’t so bad except I had put out a good amount of energy in the morning and then to turn around and ride with those guys was more than I have done in months.  I definitely didn’t eat expecting that kind of ride.  I ended up losing almost 8 pounds!

For the rest of the day I lay on the couch drinking and eating.  I felt like I had a fever and any movement of my legs could cause a cramp.  I have not felt this bad since Mount Mitchell.  In some ways, it was even worse than that ride.

From now on before I go on a ride,  I’m going to want to know who is on it, where they plan to go, and how fast they plan to ride.  Maybe I can be better prepared.  At the same time, I think I’ve learned that I can have a major bonk, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to die.