Mike's Bike Blog

This was my second Tuesday Nighter with the Lake Travis Cycling club. This time I wasn't going to misjudge the traffic to get over to Lakeway. I got to the start location 30 minutes early. We rolled out at 6 pm with 12 riders.

The group stayed together as we rolled out onto 620 making our way to Bee Cave Parkway and over to Bee Cave Road. There were a few spirited sprints as we turned the pace up to 30 mph at times. The hills on Bee Cave started to thin the group out. By about the 3rd or 4th hill I found myself in the front group of 4, Sue, Jeff, Wooly Mammoth rider and me. On the next hill the Wooly Mammoth rider dropped his chain so it was just the 3 of us. The next hill it was Jeff and me and his bike overshiffted and he suffered a chain suck. So I was off the front soft pedaling. The Wooly Mammoth rider caught up right before the Knollwood turn and we strolled through the neighborhood and surprisingly we caught the light to get back on Bee Cave so we pulled over in the shade and waited for the group.

On the way back the Wooly Mammoth would attack on the hills so I made sure I stuck to his wheel. It seemed whenever I'd get a gap off the front I'd hit a red light. One problem was I didn't know where the Bee Cave City Limit sign was. I knew it was out there somewhere so the best I could do was be prepared to go whenever. Peter from Southwest Cycle Sport, Jeff (Lake Travis Cycle Club) and an AT&T rider started winding it up. I was boxed in as they came up on my left and the Wooly Mammoth was right in front of me. The Wooly Mammoth didn't initially react and the other 3 riders were off and by the time we reacted the sprint was for the most part over. It was a 1/2 sprint for me and as I roll pass I see the green city limit sign nestled in with some trees. Now that I know where it's at hopefully next time I'll have better results.

Everybody must have left it all on the city limit sign sprint as I was able to keep going and build up a sizable gap for the rest of the way in. I thought there was suppose to be 1 more sprint to the top of the hill by Lakeway High School, if so I won it uncontested. I got back to the start with about at least a 3 minute lead. I was able to get my bike in my car and my shoes changed before the next person came in.

On the return I averaged 22.5 mph. Normalized power for the last hour was 284 watts. My max watts was 919, I really wish I would have had a chance on the city limit sign to see if I could throw down quadruple digits. If you want even more numbers check out the route and more stats on TrainingPeaks.com. Fun time!