Strawberry Rides Forever

Did the Strawberry "Century" last Sunday with little Bro Jared. It was his first big group ride. There were 800 registered riders plus a few of us bandits. I figure I don't stop at the sags and I don't want the t-shirt so why pay. I pay to ride when I plan on stopping and eating.

It was slow for about the first 10 miles so I got to the front and pumped it up to 25 or so. I got off the front a little but then all of a sudden everyone was ready to ride fast and quickly caught me. Kinda like when you try to pass an old man on the highway. He'll do 50 until you try to pass him and then he'll do 90 to keep you from getting past. By mile 30 the average was up to 24. There was a section where the front group of 60 split in two and Jared and I were in the second group. The gap was widening and I couldn't wait so I jumped across. It took about 2 minutes of a maximum effort. By mile 50 I had to pee super bad. I whipped off the road at a stop light. I was able to get back on the group without too much effort. I had a team-mate, Diego who attacked the group a couple of times but was caught. I gave it a shot with 5 miles to go but was caught and again with 2 miles to go. I would have stayed away if not for a traffic light. The group was down to 12 at this point so I sprinted as soon as the light changed and led out Diego to first with me in second. Jared was first in the 2nd group in the top 20. I was pretty proud of him. Oh yeah, you could smell strawberries almost the entire ride as the course wound through the majority of Florida's strawberry fields.