Half Wheelpalooza...

Dear Readers,

Had a great time on the Trail Spinner Night Ride last night. We had a nice group of strong riders and we were rocking out on mostly fire-roads, and as the temps dropped got to sample some sweet, sweet frozen single track up on top of the ridges. It was amazing...

11 brave souls were out last night!

Near the end of the ride, we were climbing up one of the fire-roads, I moved to the front of the group and rode tempo. Out my peripheral, I see Phil slot in along side me. In a classic half-wheel hell move he inches just a head of my front wheel. "Okay," I thought to myself, I was aggressive moving to the front and pushing the tempo.  I generally don't fall for this half wheel stuff. " I'm okay with this..." Then I hear: "CHUNK!, CHUNK!"

Phil shifted down two gears as the hill got steeper, and he began to pick up his cadence. Using my own deception and guile, I quietly shifted down a gear, and picked up my own cadence. I didn't want to show that I was reacting or even aware of his actions.  I can half-wheel with the best of them.  This time, I inched about a half-wheel in front of Phil. I could see the top of the hill, and we speed toward it. I refused to look over, but then heard that sound again, "CHUNK, CHUNK!"

I looked over as I saw Phil's wheel inch in front of mine, and saw him out of the saddle sprinting for the hill crest. "FUCK YEAH! HERO TIME!" I thought to myself, as I responded shifting quickly and jumped out of the saddle. I threw the bike side to side, and pulled back into the lead by about a half wheel, where I would hold it until we crested the hill and both sat up... We were joined in short order by Joe who congratulated us, "Nice work Boys!" I took a deep breath, and smiled at Phil, "well done!" he smiled and nodded back at me....

Yeah, sprinting for a hill top in January is generally pretty stupid, but clearly not something I'm above...

Strava had us at a dead heat, but I clearly had half a wheel!  ;-)

We soft pedaled a bit and waited for the rest of the group to join us, as we dove into the single track for one last section of trail and calling it a night.

thanks for reading

respect
vanderbacon