2012 Bone Ride.  Done.

May 23.  257 kilometers. 2 stops.

It actually started with dinner at Tutto on Tuesday evening.  Jim Mellin and the AXA pro team graciously invited a bunch of us out for drinks, food and smack talking the night before the ride.  It was great listening to a brief history of the ride from Tom Schuler – almost as good as the calamari and Guinness.  Unfortunately as we were getting ready to leave one of the riders came back in to tell us that Tom Winkel’s van had been burgalarized.  1 smashed window and 1 missing laptop, which had been hidden behind a rear seat.  Definitely a buzzkill, and Tom was unable to make the ride the next day having to stay back and get everything taken care of.  Selfishly, I was bummed, since Tom would have been pulling the whole way…

The morning of, Chris McArdle, Dave Dineen and I met at John’s in Tosa for a little carbo loading and then rolled to Schuler’s.

A few brief notes by the Master of Ceremonies and we were off.

50 degree morning temps quickly gave way to 75 and sunny and the roll to Madison was easy like Sunday morning…

Burritos and the standard Yellow Jersey picture in Madison, and then back on the road.

 About 5 miles out of Madison it was go time.  2 groups went off the front and after not giving it an ounce of rational thought, I chased.  I bridged to the second group just in time for them to slow down.  Waste of effort #1.  Go time again, I bridged up and this time brought Rudy with me.  Waste of effort #2.  Rudy thanked me for the pull and disappeared into the pack.  I had just enough gas in the tank to hang at the back before my brain started firing again and asked me what the Hell I was doing with 60 miles still left to ride.

I dropped back and drifted in no man’s land for a while until the next group caught me.  We worked together for a while, but guys were dropping like flies.  The heat, the miles and the dehydration were starting to work their magic.  Just then, like a prayer answered, the Mt. Borah Sprinter van appeared and John Grisa, Dave Dineen and I jumped behind it for a little motorpacing.  At some point, Dave and John dropped and I stayed on for a few free miles at 30 mph.  The super draft allowed me to recover a bit, but made the South East wind seem 10x worse when I got out on my own.  I ended up rolling the last 20-25 miles back to Tosa by myself.

Already looking forward to next year!  Could 2013 be the year of the fixie ride??