Early ride with Richard and Mark Fankhouser to the top of Emigration Canyon. We all left from our respective houses and met at the mouth of the canyon at 6:00. I had a 15:00 ride from my house to Suicide Rock and then another 20:00 to the mouth of the canyon. So, at 5:15 I left my house and moved along 4500S to Wasatch Blvd and across Parley's Canyon. Each time I am riding past Suicide Rock I imagine some homeless man sleeping on the trail and by the time my headlight hits him my front tire will have already bunny hopped over his midsection. I made it safely through and to the mouth my about 5:50. Stretched a little and waited for the group of dudes that Fank has been riding with for years. It's just a bunch of random guys who meet on Tues / Thursday at the mouth at 6:00. The ride 2 across and take turns pulling up the canyon. It always starts slow and then builds to a pretty solid pace by the time we hit the elbow. Today was different. At the elbow I could sense some jockeying for position. This is my fourth time riding with this crew and they usually discombobulate at the elbow and everyone kinda rides for them self for the last couple miles, but today everyone stayed together. With about 1 mile left I moved out front and started to push a pretty fast pace. Then another two guys pulled in front of me and with about 300m to go some guy pulled along side me and just hit the gas. Then three more dudes came rolling past at a smoking pace. I tried to get on their wheels, but by the time I got up to speed we were at the summit. As a side note, on September 15th, 2011 it is still pitch black at the top of Emigration Canyon at 6:40AM. We rested for a few minutes and then I led the group down. I have found that you can really push it pace going down Emigration, so I decided to not let up the whole way. It would have worked except for the school bus that stopped us at the bottom. Either way, it was a great ride that I am still feeling wobbly from. Some biker guy on Twitter tweeted out last week, "If your not sick and tired -- you are not training hard enough." That is how I feel. My legs are always sore, and my body is in a constant battle to repair itself.
I haven't downloaded my Garmin yet, but the ride was a solid 33 miles from my front door to the top of Emigration Canyon and back.
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Some guy thought he would get at me today for having a pink water bottle cage. I don't know the guy, he was in the group the Fank rides with. I rode next to him for about 5 minutes talking about were we lived and our jobs, and then with a kinda sneering tone told me that my pink water bottle cage was weird and didn't really fit on my bike. Constructive criticism from some, for me it was some good motivation to drop the hammer on the way to the summit. It felt good to bury him at the elbow.
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