no.   never really was.   Not bragging about it, more just happy.   I kept thinking here it comes, here it comes, here comes the wall…but I never hit it.   Each of the 50 foot hills and 30 seconds of sprinting along the backside of Fountain Hills hurt me, and the uphill stretches on the final descent down Windgate felt very very heavy, i slipped with fatigue near the bottom and brushed my knuckle into a cholla , but overall a remarkable improvement from last year and the year before.   My riding time was 5:10,   only 5 minutes faster than last year, but with 45 minutes less idle time.   The ride never got long, never at all.

I treated myself right this week by tapering and cutting out caffeine and beer, but my large breakfast felt heavy up Windgate.   I was pissed that for all my good nutrition i still felt like crap.   So I went slow and took a chatty break at the top to lift my spirits, and again at the top of Bell.   I left with a small group somewhere in the middle of our mass of 35 riders, and felt really good bombing the descent, except for one scary moment where my back wheel kicked up and my front side slid toward a rock outcropping nearly bashing me against a wall.   Somehow I saved it, to the delight of Rockcrusher coming down behind me, and it was like a switch flipped on the ride.   The rest of the Bell descent felt great, I let some pressure out of my tires for the 45 minute crunchy climb to the base of Sunrise, pacing myself well and gathering some strength from my familiarity with the route and firing up as we neared the climb that separates the beginning from the end.

I did Sunrise is just about 35 minutes, a good time for me on any day.   Doug and Bob were in the little crew ahead of mine, and were about to dive off when I arrived at the summit.   I didn’t jump in with Dough earlier in the day cause I wanted to relax and find my flow apart from his hammering, but knowing now that I would never see the groups behind me anyway, the opportunity to hook up with some friends who would push my pace was a great motivation for the second half.

The rest of the ride was steady and uneventful and seemed fast. Moving through the backside of Fountain Hills, when I saw we were going to be in at about 5 hrs and with only an hour of rest, i thought of calling this post “Stick a Fork in It“.   Bit i never understood that phrase.   I stick a fork in something like a turkey or banana bread when I’m not sure its done.   Its a question, not a declaration.   Coming up the crap-ass jeep road where you gain almost 1000 sneaky feet, I felt good and could tell I would feel good til the end, which made me feel better.

Windgate I have finally realized goes like this: first third you get, middle third you push a lot, final third you get.   It was nice at the summit, for the first time ever in about 10 times at the summit.   Somehow, Bob had Durtgurl’s flask full of peppermint schnapps.   And while we felt compelled to leave it for her, the graphic flavor was sooooo satisfying, sitting in the sunlight looking out eastward towards the Rim.   We each had a nip, then dove towards the end.

I got to ride one of our crew’s Pivot 429 for a few minutes back at the parking lot, while we were cracking beers.   The frame is outrageous at $2200, but what an amazing ride!   Walt, JB, and the rest of the riders trickled in while Doug, Bob and I split a pitcher at the bar across the street with a bunch of guys from the South Mountain Cyclery.   Then more beers in our lawn chairs in the parking lot.

I’m feeling it now.