Peach Peloton - The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Today was my first Peach Peloton of the season.  Chad Madan, the official organizer this year, didn't want to start until December.  We got rained out the first two Saturdays of December, and then last week I did the Chops & Hops Populaire with my rando buddies.  So, I've been looking forward to finally riding Peach Peloton today.

We rode from East Macon toward kaolin country.  Some of our Macon cyclopeeps don't like to venture that far to start, and so today it was just my Georgia Neuro teammates, i.e., the hardcore riders: Allen, Bill, Cal, Cody, Robert, Stoney, Van, and me.  It promised to be a tough ride, but I was up for it.  Not only was it a great ride, it was like an early Christmas!  Check out all the cool gifts I got:

1) Van brought our new 2019 team kits, which just came in.  Robert also ordered mini jerseys for our main team sponsors.  The mini jerseys are about six inches long, and you can hang them on a window:

The spine is back this year!

2) The guys waited for me at the end of the first attack zone.  It was a long, downhill stretch on Myricks Mill Road.  I have a hard time keeping up on the downhills anyway, and so I didn't stand a chance with it being an attack zone.

3) I'm grateful for old man bladders.  A couple of guys were taking a nature break when I caught up at the end of the Myricks Mill attack zone.  I kind of had to go myself, but I didn't want to delay the others any longer than I already had.  I figured I could wait a while, stopping by myself if I had to.  Fortunately, Bill, who didn't go at the end of Myricks Mill, called for a pee break a few miles later.

4) I was able to hang on during rotations by sitting on the back.

5) The second attack zone wasn't super attack-y.  Cody and Van opted not to participate, and so I rode on their wheel until we regrouped.

6) I didn't get dropped until mile 68!  That left only 19 miles I had to ride by myself.  I was so glad to last that long.  I'll admit that it was also nice to ride at a less insane pace for the remaining miles.

7) It was encouraging to learn that I still can do a long, intense effort.  I haven't had a hard group ride since Tuesday Worlds ended for the season a few months ago, and Tuesday Worlds is less than half the distance of today's Peach Peloton.  We'll see how the other Peach Peloton rides go this winter training season.  Even if I get dropped, though, I'm glad for the challenge.

Merry Christmas!

View of a kaolin plant from the store stop in Gordon