Fruit Loops

After 7 months in Boulder I finally did my first local weekday training ride, FruitLoops. Philly had the Tuesday Drives ride and Thursday Greentree or Great Valley which I spent a fair share of time on the front, near the front or off the front of those rides and sometimes near the back, not the back of the back but near the back. Usually though I was in the mix but since i have been in Boulder I have been pretty prominent at the back, sometimes at the back of the back. See the back of the back is different from the back, the back of the back is the place where it is almost like you are not really part of the ride or race, most people don’t even know it exists and when someone finds you there it is usually a surprise… “woo, you are here tonight?”. Typically if a rider is just at the back, then they are still noticed and might actually be involved in the dynamics of the ride, at the back of the back it is more or less just a spectator – close enough to not get dropped but far enough to just watch it all take place. To some degree it can be harder at the back of the back because the rider is actually trying not to benefit from the draft, why you ask? These are some of the excuses for riding at the back of the back: “trying to get a workout in, you know let gaps open and close them…”, “coach wants me sitting on, not mixing it up”, “its harder at the back, you know!”. Most of the time I believe the back of the back exists for those not comfortable with the situation, wanting to participate, wanting to ride at the front but for lack of confidence, fear of the unknown they resort to riding not at the back but the back of the back. It is not a good place, the most safe perhaps but not good.

The back of the back is where a cyclist goes to be forgotten.

The ride was fun even at the back of the back, it was a cool course around 45 miles total for me door to door. The roll out from Boulder is still a bit nerve wracking as most group rides head down Diagonal Highway which is has shoulder but the cars and trucks zip past at 60+ mph. With the group packed into the shoulder it can be a little unsettling. When we hit Lyons, Colorado it started to get fast, there was slight ascent up the first “fruit loop”, named for the two small loops that the ride goes up. The hardest part of the ride was towards the end when we hit a crosswind which sent the ride across road in a echelon and dudes started popping. It was a little tough and I found myself closing a big gap where I was forced into the red and onto the rivet, 30 more seconds I told myself with my head down and my legs going as hard as I could.

I was not at the back of the back at that point in the ride, but gaps were opened and closed none the less. See, I have been having some issues with my pod, my human body. It has not been co-operating for the better part of a year now. Maybe it is the 35 year old mark in life, it is telling me I am not a kid anymore? Dunno, but the most recent breakdown of my pod has left me with some major back problems, tightening of my lower back muscles, sore upper vertebra, stiff shoulders and host of other aches and pains back there. The multiple visits to the chiropractor, Dr. Boynton a local Chiro to the cycling pros has made me feel better at least in my mind. Not sure the root of it all, there is not one defining moment where this all started, there are new aches and pains each day. Some take my breath away.

I can’t stop doing what I like to do, I will not let it put me on the couch, so if the back of the back is where I need to be right now to participate then I will be there.