Sunday morning saw the start of the 2009 brevet season with a somewhat hilly 100k Populaire. The good weather saw well over a hundred people show up, which Eric and team managed to accommodate well (considering only around 50 had pre registered).
The ride started in the U-District so I biked over there from our house for 9 am. We left on time as usual and started our loop around Seattle. The route found some nice steep hills to warm up the legs, actually ended up using my small chain ring for once on some of the steeper pitches after I went anaerobic. I paced myself a bit better on the later hills.
Susan and the girls had positioned themselves at the 15 mile mark at a local coffee shop to keep an eye out for me. (Ashley had been a bit upset that I wasn’t going to be around so this helped alleviate that). It was great to see them all on the café balcony at the top of a little hill cheering us all on.
I stopped to say hi and shed my rain jacket and then carried on to see if I could chase down the group I’d been riding with. (or rather the group I had just caught prior to seeing my cheering section after having been caught out at a couple traffic lights earlier in the ride and seen them vanish in the distance).
The ride went down to the Ballard Locks, where we had to dismount and walk across to Magnolia. A quick loop around Magnolia and then over to West Seattle we went. I’d joined up with some more riders by this time and rode with them for a while.
At the control at Lincoln Park I headed out with a group of 4 riders who kept a decent pace up the ensuing hills as we cut over to Seward park. 20+ mph pace lines make the flats go by pretty fast. We reached Seward park and after getting our cards stamped did a fast little stretch along Lake Washington Blvd. My legs finally decided that enough was enough at this pace and I dropped off the group to finish the ride solo and refuel. I actually ended up catching up to the group again just at the end so must have kept going at an OK pace even after I dropped.
The final stretch was through the Arboretum and then back to the Ave for the final control in a local Alehouse. A quick stop and then I rode home before I stiffened up to much.
A nice course and great day for a ride. All in all a good kick off to the season.
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