Puerto Rico Day Day 2

Puerto Rico Day 2

I pretty much started out falling off the back of the A group.   It started out a little bigger.  Some of the B group moved up to the A group so I was thinking it might be an easier day.  Boy was I wrong!   I started out on the back for some reason.  I still have chicken blood pumping through my veins from crashing in a pack last year.   Starting in the back was a mistake.   There were two riders that fell off the pack right away and I was behind them.   I ended up chasing the pack and doing a time trial in the beginning that almost killed me.  Just as I caught up to them we turned on an out and back with some major hills.  I am not doing the descents very fast either these days.   I still have visions of my crash at the Race Across the Alps…..and my hematoma.   I remained the caboose and pretty much became my own group of A-.   I was riding by myself into the first sag.  I guess we A groupers got off course so I got even more lost.   The course was marked with some signs that said classifido online? …or something like that.  I had another athlete laugh and tell me those were not for the tour and that they were just advertisement for the classifieds in the news paper.   I decided not to pay attention to them after that.   This was a mistake too.   Turns out those were the signs for the tour and the athlete that laughed at me was wrong.   The news paper is a sponsor of the tour.   This mistake cost me more time.  I had a cop flag me down and show me where to turn to intercept the route.    I saw some riders turn in front of me and got excited again.  I caught up to one of them and asked which group they were in……it was the B group.   When I got into the rest stop it was full of tons of people.   There was hardly a place to put my bike so I just kept on going without really taking a break.  

I took off with the B  group.   The B group had passed the A group since the A group did an extra 11 miles or something like that.   The A group still left ahead of the B group at the sag.  I knew my days of riding with the A group were over.  I felt kind of good and passed lots of people on the hill.  I started getting into a groove and smiling again.  I have been suffering with the A group and hanging on for life.  It was nice to know I could pass someone at least so this is why I was in a good mood.   Mark was around as well so I got to see him some.  I was riding pretty hard until I caught one of the guides of the B grouped named Kenneth.  Kenneth is one of the nicest guys I know.   He told me that the B group really was ahead of schedule and said there was no need to hurry up since we would just have to wait for lunch.  This was when I rode with him and had a really nice time.

The next rest station was supposed to be an early lunch.   We all had to ride up this dirt road with tons of bumps for miles and then hike our bikes up a huge hill to get to the light house.   The lunch was not there yet and the A group had been sitting in the sun for an hour already waiting for it.   This was just a tiny logistical mistake but the race did get us all fed and on our way.   I left with the A group again not really thinking I would really ride with them.  My girlfriend Stephanie had stayed with them all the way to this stop so she was the bad ass for the day.  I figured she would be going along again but she did stay back.   The A ‘s regrouped at the bottom of the hill and I just rode by them.  I wanted to get a head start and cheat…hahahhaa.  I also wanted to be ready to give it another try when they came by.   They came by at the speed of light so it was pretty much useless.  I rode to the next rest stop on my own but did get to see them getting ready to get on their bikes again.  I sort of liked riding alone and just minding my own business.  I hate the interval work of riding in a pack but it does make you fast.  

The last rest stop was 6 miles from the end.   Carlos the leader from the tour gathered the boys up and mentioned there was no need to ride in hard and to take it easy.   We were all divided into groups headed to the same hotel.  I was thinking I could at least make 6 miles.  Boy was I wrong.  We had a steep climb after two miles and the boys were racing again.  I came over the climb and saw them hammering away.  I ended up again riding in alone and getting a little lost as to how to get to the hotel.  I found my signs and did make it to the town square.   I finished the ride with a frappachino .

I am suffering more than usual this year.   I sort of decided to play gown-up and by a house.   It was nice to take the break and really not do hardly much of anything but when you do take these breaks and start back it takes a couple of weeks to get back some power.  I am not sure I could have hung with the A group all 3 days like last year even with good legs.  The speeds they are doing now are insane.  I think there are 3 pros riding on the front.  There is this one guy Steve that I bet is faster than all of them,  he could be a might be a pro as well.   I decided to move down to the business class….group B for the last day.