With verbal invitation pasted to my chest I showed up at Now Bikes and Fitness a little early for the ride. I hadn't been there for a while so I might as well check out what they do that's kept them around for so long. Walking in I was struck by the staggering amount of bikes that they had hanging from the ceiling not to mention a fair amount on the floor. Not too bad, looking closer most weren't bikes I'd be super into, but I've already accepted that my taste is sort of odd. Walking around I started to notice more and more time trial bikes. I started to feel really dirty drowning in tri sort of stuff. Like I showed up at the tri and didn't know I was going to have to swim the first segment and just rode straight into the water and sank into a sea of unitards. Maybe there wasn't that much, but the guy asking about getting custom shoes so he could finish his bike swim thing didn't help. I left the shop and got ready to ride. It was 38 degrees and I was told this was going to be fast. Nothing says fast like skin exposed through knickers, so I broke out the Rapha and slathered on some Vaseline. The poor man's embrocation if you aren't aware. And I am aware of the irony of saying poor man's anything as I am sporting Rapha. They started right around six for a 30 mile loop through St. Paul, up the high bridge, down through Eagan, back across the Mendota bridge, and finally following the River Road to Marshall. It was a pretty good route with some climbing. I'm told they basically do that route every week. The pace was pretty good. I think we averaged 20. There seemed to be some random sprints that I wasn't aware of. Looking back at it, I think only one guy really knew about the sprints. Maybe he was just a little off? All in all it seemed like a decent group of guys that moved along at a pretty good clip and were really welcoming. That being said, I don't think they'll be sad if Dominic and I don't return.
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