Since Jess is in Florida getting her dress fitted, I didn't feel so horrible about skipping church this once for the Sunday team ride. Missing the team ride on Sunday is one of my biggest regrets. It's by far the most attended ride and also by far the most mileage. It is great training and in the absence of a race, makes for a terrific substitute. I hate that I miss it as it limits my interaction with a lot of the guys on the team. I get out for the HON on Wednesday and for the Muffin on Friday, but other than that I get nothing. Sunday is the big day, but for leaving at 8:30 and finishing up around noon, church keeps me from it.

But not today! And boy was I glad I didn't miss this one. We thought we might be joined by a few of the Toyota-United pro riders, but a few crashes at the CSC Invitational on Saturday meant the team had to change plans. It wasn't all a loss because it ensure that we had the largest team ride of the year. I'm not sure exactly how many folks showed up. But I feel like nearly everyone I know on the team and plenty that I don't were there. We rolled out of the Java Shack after a few warnings from the elders about proper group riding.

Since I've only done the Sunday-specific route once--a while back, I had to follow a few leads on the way out of town. I've certainly ridden on the Montgomery County roads plenty, but not this exact route. We headed in to Georgetown, then the Whitehurst Freeway, then into Rock Creek Park, where we stopped to pick up even more riders. Dodging walkers and joggers in the park was quite the sight with so many of us. We had an enormous peloton of all Coppi blue. It was very impressive and perhaps a little bit intimidating.

From there, the ride picked up the pace considerably. There are various sprint points along the way and I of course know none of them. So I would mostly follow the various attacks with some of my own and basically just mess around. I should also say that my legs were feeling like dirt from the time we started this ride. They just never felt good. So my attacks were pretty lame most of the time, but I had fun keeping the pace up pretty high.

The only sprint point I knew for sure was the race down into Great Falls Park and back out. I led for about a mile before the park and all the way down. I was very pleased with my descending skills. They've come a long way since I first started riding. I led the climb out nearly the entire way. John Larson was right on my tail as was a group of probably ten guys. I didn't have my best climbing skills today, but I managed ok. John went around me near the end but I covered without a lot of trouble. Then Bernard sealed the deal and finished us both of with a strong finish. I'll know not to lead that one out next time. Even Owen was climbing with me today, so I couldn't have been on top form ;-).

Losing the race to the top had my riding a bit chippy from then on, so when we exited the park, I just kept going and evenutally Tomas, Larson, Skubis, and Damien joined me. Tomas pulled through and we were soon riding a very strong paceline at 30 mph. We stayed in that line as we reached Clara Barton and the pace was hovering near 30 the entire time. My legs were dying and I was happy when it seemed like the pace was going to drop a bit. But no sooner did that happen than Don Saroff rolls up unexpectedly on his Track TT bike. Man can he fly on that. So we were all following him and rolling along at 30 mph again. At this point, I was starting to come unglued. I ate half a PowerBar while in the back of the line in hopes of getting some more strength, but I just couldn't find any extra energy. I was tapped out. We finally made it back to Georgetown and Larson threw down a serious attack that I had to watch. It was terrific and he left us all behind.

I caught up to him once he slowed to cross the Key Bridge and head up out of Rosslyn. We rode to the Java Shack together with the rest of the crew slowly filing in minutes behind. I ordered a large Hot Chocolate and grabbed a bagel, lemon poppy seed muffin, and a bag of BBQ chips. Basically I grabbed whatever looked apetizing at the moment. I was seriously fatigued and desperate for food. It was a great ride, but maybe next time I'll have better legs. I don't think this one should have killed me the way it did. But of course without the 30 mph paceline at the end, I would have been just fine.