A Sign of Spring
I've been drinking my sports drink concoction for a couple of days now and it feels pretty good. The body bounced back to normal with a couple of bottles of the stuff and a good night's rest. With the best weather of the year upon us here in Austin, I decided to grab Salsa Verde and grab as many miles as I could get in before my Runtex group training. I chose a new route to get over to the MoPac Expressway and found some good short hills. Nothing special about the ride. Just good miles. I made my way over to the veloway for a few laps and passed a Quintana Roo, a Bianchi and got passed by a Colnago. I then passed the Colnago. ;)
So after the second lap I stopped by the entrance and I was standing over Salsa Verde, enjoying my new sports drink concoction wondering where was the Felt Nation. Were they still up north making snow angels with their Felts still racked on the trainer? Just as I finished that thought something came up over my right shoulder. Pssssssssst! Out of the saddle and accelerating it was a Felt. Double take. Yep.... a Felt. I looked down at the bike computer. 17.3 miles. I felt warmed up but the Felt burst onto the veloway with fresh legs, out of the saddle and was making distance. What the Hell I stored the bottle, clipped in, put the head down and cranked towards the Felt.
I stayed back to gauge the Felt. This could've proven to be a mistake. So could've taking on a Felt with it's fresh legs. 16, 17, 18 mph. The first turn came up and WTF? The Felt didn't crank through the turn. It must've been trying to lure me in closer. I stayed back to study the Felt some more. Another turn and no cranking through it. Odd. I tried to get a little closer. As I didn't have the Spinergy wheel on Salsa Verde so the normal sound it made was absent. The Felt couldn't here me coming up from behind. I got two bike links behind the Felt and it sensed I was back there. 19, 20 mph. Turn. It stopped cranking, whatever. I broke from getting too close. All of a sudden Felt climbed out of the saddle and started a break away on the flats. I stayed seated, shifted and got up to 24 pmh and right behind the Felt. Seeing the big turn coming up I held back and let the Felt perform a non-crank through it. As soon as we both came out of the turn, I lit the after burners. As I approached the side of the Felt I was going to mention something about pawn shop bikes but couldn't. After all, this wasn't Pawn Shop Bike any longer. It was SALSA VERDE!
"Have you ever seen Nacho Libre? Then you know about Salsa Verde!"
I tried to shift into 52x11. Chain rattle. More chain rattle. Crap the Felt is going to pass me! Potential Embarrassment. I'd have had to take the crybaby's shortcut and pack up before the Felt finished up.
Crap!
"Chain rattle." And then sound of an angelic mockingbird with a computer voice over said....
"Engaging 52x11"
Wooooooooooooooooosh!
Dust flew into the air. Turn and cranking. Big turn and cranking. S-curve and cranking. Hill, still cranking. Flats, crank like a mother. More hills and cranking.
I finally reached the portion of the veloway I call the Champs-Élysées. It's similar to the Tour de France as it's at the end and if you reach this area in the lead, there's no real passing at that point as everyone's is slowing down for riders entering and exiting the course. So even if Felt had caught up at this point it wouldn't have counted.
I looked back over my left shoulder and didn't see the Felt. I came into the start/finish area and took a swig of sports drink. 15 seconds. 20 seconds. 30 seconds. And then I caught a glimpse of it through the junipers. And instead of coming around, the Felt made an exit for the parking lot. Odd. I turned Salsa Verde around and went to inquire. Felt was at it's carrier being packed up for the trip home.
This is going to be an interesting season. ;)
Labels: Felt, Salsa Verde, veloway
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