Upon arriving home in the rain and the headwind yesterday, or rather arriving at the base of my steep climb to home, I found I wasn’t quite as burnt as I normally am by this point.  While I didn’t exactly fly to the top and race away (twas more like lumbering and wheezing), I was able to push on without much complaint from my legs.  Aha thought I, perhaps there’s something to the idea of not riding at 95% all the time (or in my case trying to make like I’m riding at 95%).  Having energy reserves for the big efforts – sounds like common sense.

Last year I found myself making up excuses for why that rider passed me or why I couldn’t catch them.  I’m on the tail end of a big ride.  It’s a recovery day.  I’ve got another 100km to go yet.  Those were the mainstays, lies I made up to tell nobody – so I must have made them up for me.  However, having been with myself the entire ride, I was pretty sure they were half-truths though I could be swayed with the right bribes.  This season it’s become  hey, I’m knocking on 40. That’s quickly pooh-poohed by the logical half reminding the liar creative half that Thomas has a few more years on me and could out-ride me with one leg.  Then I recall that my father-in-law is of retirement age and continues to ride hard, recently rewarding himself with a spanky new full-suspension Specialized 29′r.  I have no excuses.

The excuses of course are a direct result of finding myself in a very losing position to Adam and Alberto.  I’m not sure who’s more competitive but Adam has laid down a serious gauntlet.  Within the last 15 days he’s amassed a minimum of 438km – more than double my own.  As of this afternoon, Alberto has a solid 40km on me though I strongly suspect he’s put another 40 on this evening.  I have not.  (Here comes the excuse)

Monday the eldest has Beavers, Tuesday there’s soccer and Sparks, Wednesday there’s yoga for the best wife, Thursday is soccer again and then it’s Friday.  If Adam were to ride only his commute of 35km/day and I maintained a daily 28km commute, by Friday night I’m already 35km behind.  It doesn’t help matters when the man takes a day off to put on over 120km, leaving the rest of us in his proverbial dust.  He’s going to have to break a leg…

While I have faith that Chris will pick up the pace as we goad and taunt him into action, it is Alberto that is the true wildcard.  His familial obligations are (at the moment) nil, there’s nobody waiting at the door to give him the gears should he opt to spend the evening riding instead of showering her with attention.  Should he decide, he has the time resources to put us all at the back of the pack.  Such an attempt on his part however would likely provoke a counter-attack by Adam and we’d have a hard battle for first.  At any rate, it does not look like I’ll be claiming the bragging rights this year.

So – I propose a new contest.  Elevation.  I have a distinct advantage in that I appear to have more elevation to conquer every day than the rest of the group.  It’s possible that Chris has a similar amount though I haven’t seen his new route either (also moved into a new house this winter).  Adam has almost no elevation on his route, Alberto appears to avoid it and I gather up in excess of 200 meters daily.  This I have a chance of winning without getting into trouble with the family.

A (parallel) gentleman’s wager then – first to 10,000 meters of climbing.  Game on.