Good to have you out there Marc, now you're all set up to podium at Blue Mt.
The ride started with Woody, Marc, and I. We saw and rode with JimN on parts of red and blue. I thought I saw Dr. Supurb...not sure though. Woody was in charge of this one, our pace was a tad slower than last week as Woody was still recovering from his Round Valley expedition. This was okay with me, it was real dry and with all the pollen flying around I really didn't want to hammer.
I cleared the guardrail opening climb and thought about racing up the hill to go for a KOM, but I bailed and went up moderately. It was still good enough for second, though Jeremy and his superbike haven't really given it a shot yet.
Woody mentioned something about a new segment, but I wasn't listening because I thought it would involve climbing and excessive pain. We were on Miller Lane when once again he told me about the new KOM segment. He got my attention when he said, "take it from here all the way down to Gilbride." Good, a downhill run on yellow, I can handle that. The yellow downhill trails are where I really beat the shit out of my bike. I've had a couple of close calls, but I've never had any serious injuries bombing this area. Anyway, I landed the KOM, beating Woody's time by about forty seconds. The downhill segments don't require a great deal of fitness, I'm surprised no one has beaten my time. I see that Kirt is now a strava guy, so that might change soon. Fact is, most riders aren't using gps and even less are uploading their rides to strava.
No doubt that the locals have an unfair advantage here over newcomers that are of equal fitness and ability. I rode Allaire for the first time with Marc a couple of weeks ago and I could barely hold on. New guys getting hung up on the guardrail, the imba hill, and the yellow climb is where the locals start pulling away.