Continental Classic report

well, not as much improvement as I'd hoped. This year's ride was 66.7 miles long, finished in 4:41 with stops, total on-bike time = 4:01, average speed 16.6 mph.

Compared to last year, I shaved about 50 minutes off the total time, 59 minutes off the on-bike time, and increased my speed by 2.5 mph. If you factor in a course that's 2 miles longer and add about 8 minutes to last year's times, it looks even better. However, since I was hoping for a shorter time than last week's Spring Breakaway, I'm a little disappointed.

Part of the problem is that we just started out too fast. Captain McSpeedypants opened it up almost immediately after the start congestion had cleared, blasting 22 mph up a hill after barely 5 minutes warmup. I mean, sure, we had a bit of a tailwind, but if he wanted me to finish strong, this was not the way to start. After I gave him a bit of hell about that, we slowed down to a more sedate pace on the uphills (18ish), but I was still very happy to get to the 2nd rest stop. I was also happy to see that we had caught up with our other group, which had started 5-10 minutes ahead of us. :)

After waiting in a ridiculously long line to pee, we headed out, passed most of the other group again (hee), and turned into the loop to Anderson, aka "the tough part". We were only going to stop at every other rest stop, but by the time I had climbed that last hill into Anderson, I needed to stop.

After we got back on the road, I found myself watching the odometer...the real hills ended at mile 39, so I was just hanging on and waiting for that number. I stayed with McSpeedy for most of the first big hill, but then I just let him go. Somewhere around hill 3, he paced me so he could push me up the last part of the hill. He did this several times during the rest of the ride...at first, it was kind of nice. After a few rounds, though, when I was tired and irritable and my ego was getting more and more bruised, it started to get irritating. I started tensing every time I was ahead of him on a hill (which wasn't often), and was all prepared to snap "I swear to god, McSpeedy, you do that to me ONE MORE TIME..." But he didn't, so all the better for both of us. :)

Things were uneventful for the rest of the ride, though the headwind from Richards all the way back to the finish (20 miles or so) was a bit disheartening. We met up with the other group one more time in Richards, but they stayed longer at the stop and we didn't see them again. I had some strong moments, some weak moments, but about 10 miles from the finish I looked up and realized the same thing was happening on this ride as on the Spring Breakaway--no one was passing us. I may not have been feeling fast, but it appeared that I was still feeling faster than everyone else (at least, those who hadn't already finished).

In the last mile to the finish, we finally got our tailwind back, and I was feeling pretty good. I had made the turn ahead of McSpeedy and had some momentum from the downhill, so we were headed up this last hill at 18-20 mph when I approached these two guys...spread out on a 10' wide shoulder leaving no room to pass on the left, going about 10 mph. Not wanting to slow down and have to grind up the rest of the hill, OR shoot the gap between them, I called 'on your left' and swung out to pass on the outside and expected the one on the left to move over. Dude didn't move, leaving me about a foot between him and the rumble strip starting about 10 yards ahead. Prick. So I did what I had to in order to stay out of the main traffic lane...put on a short burst of speed so I could cut in ahead of him before I hit the rumble strip. Anyway, as I'm doing this, the one on the left makes a snotty little comment, "oh, it's a race to the finish now, eh?" Grr.

Being the confrontational person that I am (not), I mumbled under my breath, "only because you're going so fucking slow, assface". I'm pretty sure he couldn't hear me, and I knew I was being bitchy, and it didn't really make me feel any better anyway, but what the hell? He needs to slow down everyone behind him? Criminey. (McSpeedy's response to his comment--which he did hear--was more measured..."yep, and you just got smoked by a girl." Hee.)

So yeah, that was unpleasant. But overall, it was a really nice ride, if a little windier than I would have liked toward the end. We started at 8:30, and if the lines for the portocans would have been shorter, we would have finished by 1:00. That's not so bad for a hilly 67 miles, and though it isn't the progress I'd hoped for, it is a decent improvement over last year.

Next up, the Space Race century in April. I will make the 100-mile cutoff this year. :)