the weekend for one, twos

image for entertainment purposes only. 

G2 is not represented at the tour of denmark

well, along with matti breschel and jakob fuglsang, matt goss and mark renshaw, G2 had it's own 1-2 finish on Mike's Ride™ this morning. your humble author and Willy van Gent™ (team captain and chief counsellor) managed to time a breakaway to perfection today and roll in 10-15 seconds ahead of the main field of mike's ride. the winning move (if you can call it that in a non-race race) came just after hillsboro avenue. I rolled off the front and was quickly joined by a Bike America rider (well, a rider in BA kit). we got a small lead, but I was fairly convinced that we were just seconds away from getting caught and sat up. no sooner had I committed to being caught and willy came up from the main field and together we closed the gap back up to the BA rider. the trio worked together and managed to get a gap that seemed like it might stick. the only real mar came when we decided to blow the light at palmetto park. while we very seldom run lights (and indeed slowed quite a bit for this one), the thought of a breakaway victory was too strong. the BA rider decided to stop and willy and I rode the golf course section on our own. thanks to willy's calming influence ("dude, don't blow up"), I did not blow up on the long uphill to spanish river. I was concerned that we were just about to get caught, but we kept it steady and powered up the last incline before the long straight to the finish. the spanish river hill is always a deciding factor. unless there are very strong riders in the main group, you can pretty much count on no one being willing to pull hard up the hill. because of this and our steady pace, willy and I were in a perfect position. willy led over the top and we powered along the long straight. I took over the pacing at the mid way point and we held on to cross the line a bit ahead of the lone BA rider and a good distance ahead of the field. it was the kind of finish that just sort of happened. there were no hard attacks, but we just sort of got things right.

in other news, it was very good to see norm out again - the links having only briefly lost their allure. look for more appearances by norm and mo nearer to fall when the greens fees increase. it will be best since we could use their horsepower - and their company -at the front. also making a return was clements venderwerf. straight off of the boat still with hints of sea salt on him... although that might have been sweat, come to think of it... anyhow, he traded his sea legs for cycling legs... which may need another ride or two to return. another shout-out goes to helen mckenzie who, like the helena before her, came out to give mike's ride a go. other than some misunderstandings about where and when the group stopped, she survived quite well. and, for all who are interested but haven't yet come out, riding mike's isn't like being chained to an oar. you can always slow down and finish the ride at your own pace. riding with faster riders, however, is the key to becoming faster yourself. if those are your aspirations, come on out, it is always good to see large numbers of G2s on the ride - front, back, or middle...

although, I daresay we are often in the front!

lord have mercy!

after mike's the reassembled group rode north to lake worth with everyone riding well and taking turns with pacemaking. kevin, rené, kyle, danny, norm, clemens, and jim dusek all did a great job getting us home against a headwind. kevin rode especially strongly today - well done!

 a special thanks to clemens for giving me a ride from atlantic. the thought of riding the rest of the way home had lost it's appeal about 3 blocks north.