Thursday night ride

I went out for my regular Thursday night ride today after work. The group I ended up riding with was going a bit faster than I can handle (which is good for me, you know, the only way to improve is to ride with people better and faster than you).

Anyway after about 8 miles into the ride, and a few too many 20 mph pulls when I was having difficulty hanging on, I decided to sit up a bit, drop off the pack and wait for the next, hopefully slower group. Someone was on my wheel as I sat up - I know I sat up too quickly and taking your hands off the bars in a paceline is usually not a good idea, but the guy didn't bitch at me or say a word. He wouldn't come around me even as I let the gap open up a bit. Then he followed me through a sweet dog-leg, one of my favorite parts of the ride - a short downhill with a real quick on-camber right turn, followed almost immediately by another sweet left turn, like riding a go-kart on rails. The guy followed me through those turns, and then I said something about really wanting to sit up and I let the gap open a little bit (the group I was with rode timid through the S-turns, and we had caught back on).

I let the gap open a bit, 20 meters, then 50 meters, then 75. The guy finally comes around me but then he sits maybe 15 meters out in front of me, looking over his shoulder, silently saying "come on, sit on my wheel and I'll bring you up". I hesitated, because I really was a bit tired (and it _was_ ridiculously hot, and I didn't bring enough water, and...), but I rode up to his wheel anyway.

Then he accelerated so smoothly, I hardly noticed the increase in speed. Without question he was the smoothest wheel I have _ever_ sat on. It only a minute or two to bring me up to the group but it was one of the sweetest rides I can remember. thanks man