Digging deep....

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After a lovely trip to Arizona for the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo, it's back to the grind. And that means attempting to stay with the group road ride - aka Saturday Morning Worlds! The roll out along Platte was brisk and it was a really big group. I was a little skittish at first since I haven't been in a group for a while and it was a big group. There was also a pretty stiff wind from the south that I was not looking forward to. Sure enough, at the right hand turn, things got nuts. I knew that I wouldn't be able to take a turn on the front, so I hid in the back. Even hiding in the back was pretty hard work today - there were some fast guys on the front today. It was also kinda a weird day in the pack. Lots of surges and accelerations - on the gas to prevent the gaps from happening, then breaking to avoid the wheels of the people in front of me. I made it to the left turn onto Link and then was spat out the back. And with the wind, it was hitting a brick wall. I tried to hop on the wheels of some of the trailing riders, but I was done. I managed to stay with a small group until the hill, then it was a solo time trial into the wind until the turn around.

I did manage to keep the number of times I was dropped to three this time - on Link, on the frontage road to Ft Carson (I made contact, sprinted to close the gap, but that was just enough effort to put me in the pain cave and I couldn't hold wheels anymore.) Finally, when the pack attacked on road in Ft Carson, I was done - I said goodbye and rode my own way home, meandering through the Broadmoor and doing a few shorter climbs. No Zoo for me today - although I did meet up with the group again just before Cheyenne Canyon. Someday, I'll make it up to the Zoo with the main group, I just need to get a little stronger! But I was digging deep to stay with the pack on the main drag - the numbers were good!

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