Sunday Bloody Sunday -- "Unnatural"

We hit the road for Eureka before sunrise this morning for a Bloody Sunday ride. This ride started a few years ago while Danny, me, and Dan took to the roads of Eureka for a no compromise, no mercy hill efforts. My first Bloody Sunday forced me off the bike on its last hill, a first for me in a long time. I hurt so much that I dubbed the name Bloody Sunday. Since, we try to get some of these in every year.

Today, it was some of the strongest riders of the Hub. Within the first 15 miles, I knew something was wrong. The average was a chill 19.9 and we were hammering every flat at 24 - 28 mph. No one mentioned anything about easing up, so I didn't either. I figured someone would say something eventually. This pace was cutting into me at first though. Then we hit an interval up Bartizan -- a 24% wall. Devin looked like he just strolled up it. I seemed to struggle a bit but midway my legs really started to liven up and I felt really good reaching the top just behind Devin. We cruised down and then road up Woods. I started putting a little punch in on the group there and by St. Albans, people were hurting. I felt pretty good from there out -- hurting but always having a reserve ready. The last hill, Danny and Joe dropped early and it was just me and Devin on this long deceptive climb. After a few false summits, Devin jumped out of the saddle for a finish to what he thought was the end. I knew that it was yet another false summit and just stayed in pace. As the summit vanished, all I heard from Devin was a "Graaahh". Even at the top, the hill really just levelled from a 15% to a 4-5% and Devin dissappeared as well. Brutal hill. We cruised back to Danny's at a nice 23-24 mph pace and did the final small 9-10% hill to his place where some cold brews were waiting. Always have a recovery drink.

We coverred 60 miles, 4000 ft of climbing in 3 hours 10 minutes for an avg speed of 19.0 mph.

In the words of Devin afterwards, "What we did today was unnatural".