Today is/was Sunday so that means the McDonald's ride once again.
As always this 'group ride" (read race) started out with the usual s-l-o-w rollout for the first 15 minutes until Hunte Parkway when with the help of gravity the speed picks up from the casual 16-18mph and kicks up to 35mph and then of course slows again to go back up the other side of the 1000 meter hill. Except today. My Highschool buddy (25+ years ago) decides to take a flyer ( I guess he was still smarting from us catching his breakaway group for the day before on the Donut ride) so I thought what the hell imight as well join him until the charging pack catches us at the bottom of the next hill. Well, the bottom came and went and we were joined by one other rider and had a 300 meter gap. As I came around Jay (my Highschool buddy) I yelled we have a gap let's go...and we did. Sharing pulls we started to stretch or lead by a few more meters. I don't think the pack figured we would last past the next little climb. It's more of a bump in the road lasting 100 meters and gaining only 30 feet or so. As we crested the hill our speed kicked back up to 25 and I was sitting in 2nd spot when the lead rider (don't know his name) looked backed and flicked his elbow in the universal language of cycling to say "you turn" so I pulled through as he peeled off. Well what happened next I didn't really plan. As I pulled through I started accelerating and when I looked back my fellow escapees were falling back and closing on them was the peloton as full gallup. Normally I am sane enough to realize that solo breakaways don't make it from 6 miles out. Hey I have heard Paul and Phil discussing that very subject everytime some unknown rider takes a flyer in the Tour Day France. Today I guess I was feeling pretty good. I jumped out of the saddle, gapped them and the charging peloton and lo and behold I was away! Two things go through your mind when you get away. The first is "wohoo I got away!" :)and the second one is "Oh Sh** I got away!" :( The reason for the second is because now you have to go for it until you blow up and they catch you or you actually make it. The latter takes you through the front door of the House of Pain. I looked down at the cyclometer to see if I had enough speed and was shocked to see 33 mph and my HR was 101% of my FT! Ouch, this is gonna be fun (not). At this point my sudden acceleration caught them out and I had over a minute on the field with a short but steep hill coming and the corners. The last 4 miles are pretty much a series of corners with straights of less than 1500 meters bewtween so I was hoping that the "out of sight out of mind" thing would work when they could no longer judge their progress on reeling me in. I was cruising (relatively) at 28mph when I came around the corner just as the wind kicked up. It was a viscious headwind of 15mph with gusts to 20. My speed dropped to 20 mph and with no one to draft I knew I was doomed. I continued to battle the wind but when they started closing fast it only took another 5 minutes or so to get caught and swarmed with less than a mile to go. But today I can say I went for it and actually got away from 20+ riders for 5 miles and didn't give up mentally before I was caught .
And all the while I could hear Paul Sherwin and Phil Liggett in my head discussing the math involved for the peloton to catch this lone breakaway rider. The only thing better is when I hear Phil saying in my head "He's Dancing on the Pedals" when I am climbing exceptionally well.
-Scott
A qoute from the book "DANCING ON THE PEDALS the found poetry of Phil Liggett the Voice of Cycling"
THE LONGEST KILOMETER
When is a thousand meters longer than a thousand meters?
When you are riding The Tour de France and winning on your
own
but the peloton is chasing you down----
a bunch of riders in this case.
And he's checking, checking, checking...
Becuase he's got no more speed left in those legs and will that
banner ever come toward him here?
He wants a long time to enjoy himself.
Stage 11, 2003
On Juan Antonio Flecha's solo win
cheerful 
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