Tuesday Night Worlds

Last night was easily the hardest ride I've done outside of racing this summer. Every tuesday night, spring through fall in Durango, several group rides leave for what essentially evolves into a road race scenario. Last night saw a solid turnout of local cycling pros, including Jittery Joe's Ben Kneller and Matt Shriver, BMC's Brent Bookwalter, HealthNet's Corey Collier, the ageless Ned Overend, and several other top amateurs from the local area. The funny thing is that we were still short a few names, including Kelly Benefits rider Dan Bowman, Toyota United's Chris Wherry, GT's Todd Wells, and a number of other cyclists that make this mountain town one of the west's cycling meccas. I knew it was going to be a challenging ride with all the heavy-hitters present, but also because the route involved a considerable amount of climbing, and my legs were already a bit tired from the transition back to training and racing this past weekend in Salida. The ride began on a 10 mile climb up to Hesperus, where I was shelled off the back about halfway up after riding tempo for a while on the front. I rejoined the group at the top for the flatter section, when after continuously ramping up the speed with Corey on the front, he stepped it up another notch, Ben Kneller attacked on a roller, and I was off again. I usually don't have too much trouble staying with the group on rides like this, but these guys were absolutely on mission to make the entire ride a sufferfest, and we were holding 55+k/h for most of the flat and rolling sections. After joining the group for a second time, we hit another climb on a quality dirt road and made our second loop over the rollers near Breen. This time I was able to hold on and set good pace at the front, as we whittled the group down to 4 for the last descent into town. I didn't make much of an effort for the town sign sprint, but I was happy to survive the ride and lock some excellent mileage and effort into my legs. Hopefully next go around I'll be able to hang a little longer on the climbs before the elite climbers take command.