58 mile ride

I went on a ride with a local cycling group on Saturday that turned out to be really great and really disastrous. First with the disaster. Because it was my first ride, I took it easy to get a feel for the pace and rider ability. After about 10 miles we encountered our first hill. I was feeling really strong and noticed that most of the riders began to take it easy up the hill. That is not my typical riding style. Typically when I see a hill, I sprint up the hill and give it everything I have because there are so few hills in the area. I checked my corners to check the vicinity of other riders, seeing none, I made a quick maneuver. What I did not see was that somebody made a similar decision and was already gunning up the hill. When I made my move, I essentially cut the other rider off. His front wheel glanced off of my rear wheel, and he hit the pavement at about 20mph. He came down hard and did not slide much. Luckily he was able to get up and he was no bones were broken. He ultimately had to quit the ride because his bike got munched up a little bit. He had a classic lugged Colnago frame (very sweet) and much of the tragedy is in the damage to the bike.

Now the really great part. My training has definitely paid dividends. I hung with the strong riders of the group and was able to out sprint and out climb all but one rider whose wheel was never more that a few feet in front of me. That guy is actually a competitive racer. I finished a few minutes behind the group due to a flat. The group ride stats are: 54.3 miles, 19.9 mph average, 39 mph max, 2 hrs 43 minutes. The remaining four miles were from the ride to/from my condo to the start/end point.

Some of my favorite compliments from the ride were:
"You are going to be scary-fast once you lose the weight you want."
"You are in some kind of shape!"
"You have fantastic thighs!" <- A little creepy, but a strict comment on the size of my legs (over developed from carrying my fat rear end around for so long.)