First, I hate Michigan weather. A 15% chance of rain in most States means there’s no way you’re getting wet. In Michigan, there’s a 100% chance you’re getting 15% wet.

You guessed it… waiting for the main event after the warm-up last night, we ended up 15% wet. The sky opened up for about five minutes.  Thankfully, it wasn’t too bad.

We rolled at 6:01, just after the A guys left. The ride was great, fast and fun. My bike performed perfectly and was fun to ride. Still, I got pipped at the intermediate sprint because I tried to go around Toby too soon – he grabbed my wheel and used my draft to slingshot around me. Dude has another gear, man. I thought I had him played but he got me by a full bike length.

The final stretch was crazy fast, though. With a straight crosswind, we hammered at better than 24-mph for five miles, tearing the group apart. Approaching the City Limits sign I was in perfect position a couple bikes back of Toby. I simply waited for him to go and hopped on his wheel. He’s a short fella, so getting a draft wasn’t easy. I started my sprint with my nose a couple of inches from my stem. I waited till we were inside 100 meters to go, though, and when I shot around Toby, I countered his attempt to grab my wheel by shooting all the way to the right side of the lane after coming around wide to his left. I think he actually mumbled, “dammit” when he missed my wheel. He didn’t give up, though. He poured it on and started around me, to my left. I put everything I had into my pedals and lurched my bike at the last second, taking him by inches.  The lead-out was 27-mph, we crossed the line at better than 35.

It was perfect. We crossed the line at 1:18:45 with an average for 28 miles of 21.5-mph…

Later, my buddy Chuck texted, suggesting maybe it was time we tried to jump up to the A group, citing that we’re spending a lot of time up front and we’re not as hammered as we once were to stay with the B Group.  He’s got a point, but I’ve been through this line of thinking before;  I have no pressing need to ride with the A guys…  While it would be pretty cool for the STRAVA account to show a 24-1/2-mph average, that’s never what I’ve been about, big average speeds.

I still fall back to what my buddy, Winston said yesterday after the Assenmacher 100:  “I just rode a hundred miles (in 4h:17m and change) and didn’t enjoy one of them.

I rode 100 miles in five hours and enjoyed all but four of them.  I’d much rather that.