So Sunday was the Tour De Lake Hopatcong 40 mile road ride. Technically it wasn't a race. It was an organized ride, but they did have prices, and the event was timed. I think that they just aren't posting any kind of results (I could be wrong about this though).
Anyhow, my ride went like this:
I showed up at 8:00-ish, and I think I was the first person there (not counting the organizers). Definitely not like most races where people are there huours in advance.
9:30 AM we started rolling, and it was a really big group. Not sure the number, but there was a lot. The terrain in the beginning were the windy roads around the lake. At about mile 6 some guy went careening right into the blunt end of a guardrail. He and his bike went flying in the air, and it looked REALLY nasty. Someone in the group yelled "DO NOT LOOK BACK" which turned out to be sagely advice. If everyone started looking back and stopping, it could've tumbled the entire rest of the pack like dominos. There were some spectators a little further up who saw it happen, and ran up to assist the guy, so at least we knew he was going to get some help. (I later heard that he was OK, but his bike was jacked up).
The group pretty much stayed together until the first climb at mile 13. That split the group into two main packs. I found myself right in the middle of the two. No man's land... Not quick enough to make with the faster group, but faster than the second group. I sat up and waited for the group behind to catch me because I was surely not gonna close the gap alone.
Within that pack of riders I found a good group of guys who were riding at my same ability. We stuck together & worked together for the rest of the ride. We eventually closed the gap on the main pack, which was a bit smaller than it was previously. I think that is because a bunch of the really strong A riders went off the front never to be seen again.
Anyhow, I stuck with my group of about 10 or so. As the race kept on, we hit the big 3 mile hill up Edison Road at mile 21. That stretched out the group, but we eventually gathered back up to about 8 riders at the top.
As we continued throughout the ride, we sporadically lost a person here and there. Towards the end, there were only three of us left. By this point my legs were dead with less than 1 mile to go. The other two guys still had some gas left in the tank, and they were able to open up a gap in front of me that I was never able to close.
I was fine with it since I was extremely happy with my effort up to that point. I slogged out the last half mile by myself. I was happy that I made it that far, and wasn't dropped at the beginning of the ride.
At the finish line, we all met up and congratulated each other for the hard effort.
It was a great day.
