Another Peach Peloton Season

It's hard to believe that today was the season's last Peach Peloton.  Well, it was the last road edition of the season - Robert is leading a bonus mountain bike ride next Saturday, but I won't be there because I can't keep up on mountain bikes, and (more importantly) I'll be volunteering with MATHCOUNTS next Saturday.

For many years we wrapped up Peach Peloton season with the Pine Mountain Challenge, a 130-mile ride from Barnesville to Pine Mountain and back.  Although we weren't quite that ambitious today, we did the longest ride of this season, the Cody 99.  These were primarily roads that Cody likes to ride near his home in Barnesville.  Some of them were new ones for Peach Peloton, which is always fun.  A few roads nostalgically overlapped the old Pine Mountain Challenge route.

I kept up for most of today's ride.  That's mainly because there were no attack zones.  The bandanna contest (yellow for attack zones and green for sprints) ended last week when the season winners couldn't be caught.

We had a store stop at mile 60.  Robert headed out first because he had broken a cable, making it difficult to match the pace of the peloton.  After some brief refueling, I also rolled out before the rest of the group to keep from getting too cold.

For a few miles after the store stop, I didn't think I would ever get warm again!  Eventually, though, I felt better.  I kept up a good tempo, wondering when the rest of the guys would catch me.

Soon enough, they did catch me.  I hoped that I would be able to keep up the rest of the way, given the relatively moderate pace we had been riding.  Alas, that wasn't too be.  They dropped me on a big climb.  Later, I found out that they picked up the pace significantly during that last part of the ride, dropping several others.

Even though I had to ride solo at the end, I had a good ride.  I motivated myself to keep up a certain average speed and average power, and I met my goals!

Robert had given me a heads up that the route was 99 miles long.  Of course that meant that I had to ride a little extra at the end.  I wasn't the only one.  Seven of us - everyone but Robert and Allen - gave in to their OCD impulses to get 100 miles.

I got  dropped almost every week this Peach Peloton season.  Most weeks it was cold, windy, and/or rainy.  That probably doesn't sound too pleasant, but these rides help me be a better cyclist.  Also, my PP guys mean a lot to me.  It's not that we talk that much during the ride, but I know they are there, and I know how they ride.  There's a comforting familiarity from them as well as the roads of Middle Georgia.  See you all again in about six weeks when Tuesday Worlds starts back!  Ride on!