- univ.hill: was at the front approaching the right turn, nothing i can do, everyone's just sitting on. probably was 2nd wheel coming mid-hill, still no attacks, wait, wait, waiting... bottom of the hill, blew a sprint opportunity, lazy to shift, got out of the saddle. that triggered a response, DM & DC came zipping by, still have the legs i followed, DM crested, sat up in the middle of the lane, while DC kept going on the left, wasn't ready to give up, i kept rev'g it way after the crest [30~31mph?], pretty good 15s effort to open up the legs. threw my bike at the T-junction for good measure, we were laughing alright. - i guess no one wants to work after the st.mary/IL-60 light, PL kinda looked away and pretended to grind at his gear. wtf, went to the front and thought i'd initiate things. ended up pulling for the next 2.5miles at around 21~22mph, just to start things off. + surprise surprise, no one attack up old school, i was just grinding a sustainable tempo at the front, i'm sure they're just playing the waiting game again, and blowing away another good hill to attack, dunno. + the fun came after making sure the coast is clear and smoking that right hand turn onto bradley without touching the brakes. gave it a quick spin to ramp it up to 27.5mph knowing the bottle neck back at the corner, gapped. feeling somewhat motivated, not exactly fresh, just motivated to see how it'd go, kept the effort and DM came by pretty quickly and i jumped on. it was mostly DM and me at the front, until couple [DC & SIU] more bridged, ave=24.5mph for 1mile. + made that left turn and it's time to get position for the sprint, not that i had much left mentally, but just wanna play it smart and get positioned, maybe i'd luck out. DC gave it a good leadout, DM jumped, i followed, had the inside line, but still couldn't pass him, good 0.5mile sprint, ave=26.1mph. i was gasping for air the whole while waiting for the light to turn green. felt pretty good actually, all these efforts. - quick 2min "delivery" to carmax: + on-coming traffic at the sharp right hander onto frontage, no breakaway... + sat in 5th wheel, watching, adrenalin pumping, lower arms tingling. things started to pick up, 1st wheel took a big turn, pulls off to the left, SIU surged off the right, DM right behind him, wheel in front [DC?] of me sat up @23mph?!! rev'd it up to bridge before the gap grew to seconds, soon after DM jumped off, glued straight to his wheel, sat for 20s, looked back, nice gap. waited till last moment to grab the sprint. good out of saddle form, not over-geared. - was just debating about hitting the pain cave by going solo somewhere close to the end, or play the waiting game till the bunch sprint at bahai. then the opportunity came, as DC pulled through the front drifting down on the outside, i was sitting singled file on DM's wheel, two of the heavy hitters of the day. all i have to do is to pop off, come around DC, and DM would be boxed in automatically. + the only miscalculation was MC coming across and sat on my wheel for a few seconds, then a crash of metal back at the field, we both looked back, seems like everyone's still upright, pedal to the floor, while MC hesitated and somehow couldn't close the gap, oh well... + it was a good 2.5min [1mile?ave=25.1mph] all out effort, but with so many matches already burnt earlier in the ride, there was only so much i can do, i could see the field inching closer everytime i looked back. form was gone, all i could do was to spin a manageable gear and waited to be swallow up soon. and then of course we all got stopped by the final lake.ave light, so much for that. i probably would have gotten caught right before the sprint anyways. i guess coming back together with the field again gave me some recovery time, to try again for the final sprint... - after 1.5mins of "recovery", time to sit in and wait for the 35seconds of glory sprint up bahai, somewhere we picked up a xXx CX rider, it was mostly a blur, but everyone was waiting till the final moment. usually the sprint starts around the brick bridge at gilson park, but most of us waited till the middle of the 'S' maybe a couple of bike lengths from the bottom of the "hill", again i was right on DM's wheel, was surprised to feel "fresh" enough to get out of the saddle, no cramps either, must be the cooler temps and lack of perspiration... CX took the win, DM 2nd and i followed right behind, gotta be satisfied right? - ave=21mph+ for 53miles, average??