It seemed awfully early when Jorgie pulled into my driveway to carpool to the Tour of The Litchfield Hills ...about a 90 minute drive.  But he brought coffee, muffins, and egg sandwiches...so soon enough we were awake, eating, and chatting about our favorite topic -- bicycle racing.   We got there, registered, and then Jorgie noticed he had a slow leak in his front tire, so we changed that. 

The ride started right at 8:00 AM ....looked like a big peloton for the 75 mile ride, over 1200 riders total (for rides of all distances).   Soon enough we found a working paceline and joined right in.  An unbelievably thrilling descent with speeds up to 45 mph led us into the rest stop at 25 miles, where we stopped to refill bottles and eat bananas.  Then we were off again.

Not too long after that there was a decisive climb....long and hard...and I struggled to make the split, but I did.  I am glad I did because those that made the split self-organized into another highly cooperative and high-powered paceline and we were flying across the flats.  We went so fast we caught the front group and joined forces.  This was a big and powerful paceline and about 15-20 of rolled into the rest stop at 50 miles for more water, bananas, and PB&J sandwiches.  Then we were off again.

About 10 miles after this I made a "mistake"...attacking the paceline.  I had a nice gap, maybe as much as 600-800 feet.  But they reeled me in eventually, and showed me no mercy...my heartrate was high from my attack and escape...and then could not hang on to the group any longer.  It was a fun attack, so I didn't mind too much.  I stopped at another rest stop to refuel, and then just followed another rider in.

Great BBQ afterwards....pizza, pasta, soda, music...all the riders sprawled out on the town common chatting it up on the day's ride.  Good fun.

My Garmin 305 computer wigged out on me, so I don't have my ride data.  But that was 75 miles, 8100 feet of vertical climbing (hilly!), at a smidgen under 20 mph.  I was about 10th rider in, Jorgie about 3rd.