Three Grimpeurs got back to racing on Thursday. Diesel, Birdman and Fat Cat started on Snake Hill and finished at Masontown. Fat Cat Rode in front the whole way but could not ride anyone off his wheel. In fact, there wasn't even any tell-tale wheezing or groaning from the rear guard. When the little peleton crested the last hill before the finishing straight, Diesel shot out from behind. Fat Cat and Birdman just sat there in his vapors. Fat Cat, remembering his near death experience in his last sprint win, said, "I ain't goin' after him." Birdman replied, "Me neither." So, they soft pedal up his contrail and watched Diesel throttle his machine to the line.
Fat Cat congratulated Diesel and tossed him the polka dots. Diesel was glad to have them back after missing them for so long. Then, for some unknown reason, the whole idea of the podium shot (silly as it may be) slipped the minds of the Grimpeurs. Without pomp and/or circumstance, they saddled up and moved on through Masontown towards McKinney cave road. So you see, Diesel won, but didn't get his due accolades at the finish. The above photo is a stock shot. In your mind's eye, just replace Sandbag with Fat Cat and erase the snow, if you please. Again, all apologies.
After the big return to grimp racing, Birdman set a blistering pace up 7 to McKinney Cave. From there it was an easy amble over to Born Road and then Kingwood Pike. At Summer School, just before a long descent, the cold rain finally started. Apparently Mother Nature and Old Man winter had a bit of a tiff and one or the other was feeling a bit vindictive. So, in an attempt to stave off the cold, Fat Cat took the Conn again and set quite the pace. In the end the overall average was just over 16mph from start to finish. We don't usually keep stats, but we did today. If you must know, it was a 14.77 mph average speed from the bottom of the Snake to Masontown.
In other news: The first race for Team Grimpeur will be The Morgantown Road Race. That is only six weeks away. Anyone who wants to do it should start training. However, any grimpeur is welcome to join in regardless of fitness. You will have no trouble beating Fat Cat's 2009 av speed of 16.7 mph for a time of 30:30. We hope to improve on that. (You laugh, but the slowest masters was 14.57mph) You may want to suck it up if you want to beat Birdman's av speed of 19.4mph and 2:35. Since Gunnar is an official Grimpeur, we should mention his average speed of 20.7. I guess he's the rabbit, now.
1 comment:
Nice post!
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