Orlando magic

I haven't been to Orlando since the late 80's and boy has it ever grown. Our hotel is just south of Universal Theme park on the southwest side of town. Looked up some local rides on Google and found a group that meet on Sunday's at 8:15 (http://www.windermereroadies.com/). There was also a RR up in Patakla some 50 miles north, but the 1/2's didn't get going until 2PM for 70 miles which would've put me past my 5:15PM meet with the crew for our flight home.

So I set my alarm to 6:45 with a plan to get my but out the door by 7:30AM for the 1/2 hour ride to the Windermere Elementary School where these guys ride from. So even though I went to bed about midnight, 6:45 came awful early (3:45 PDT) and I rolled over back to sleep. By the time I did get up, put the Pocket Rocket together, download the map of the 55 mile Groveland loop, and get out the door it was 10:20. Somewhere along the 8-9 miles to the school I lost my directions - so I decided to wing it.

I knew it was northwest out to the Clermont, but not all the turns, so instead I rode Hwy 50 out, went south around Lake Minnehaha and then back to the hotel the same way. It was an easy to moderate pace while temps slowly increased throughout to the mid-90's (with a heat index around 104!). It felt great, muscles warm & loose, good sweat going, seeing new sights while out exploring a new part of the country - and was certainly a good way to forget about the Health Net crit in Portland on Friday night.

8 1/2 minutes is all I lasted Friday night in the CAT 1/2 race - eight and one half minutes?! It was a pretty technical course, and the start was just ridiculous. Right away in turns 1 and 2 guys were clipping there pedals & skipping their rear and letting gaps open. By lap 2 & 3 with a couple of crashes the gaps were increasing to an almost insurmountable amount. A few guys like Rob Campbell who have the horsepower to quickly close gaps were working overtime to get to the 1st chase group. The lead group of 15 lapped them about 15 minutes into the race. The rest of us who have more sustained power than those gifted with pure fast twitch power were left in the dust despite not breaking a sweat. I was so pissed that there were such a large group of riders that couldn't hold a wheel, couldn't control themselves in a corner, and wouldn't work to chase back on. I was happy to see Aaron Johnson skitter his way up through the pack and get his butt into the lead group and ultimately finish 7th.

I think I drank 6 large bottles in Orlando and I still came back dehydrated and drinking like a sponge. But it was a wonderful area and look forward to exploring it further another time. Perhaps even somehow magically getting my west-coast butt out the door for the 8:15 ride.