Early weekend update

Saturday was just about the perfect winter day to ride. It was 38 when I left the house, but got warmer in a hurry. When the group got to the egress of the Fort, most of the folks shed at least one article of clothing. This theme continued throughout the ride, until we all looked like we had some sort of lumpy tumors growing from random spots on the body.
The ride started off mellow enough. We rode piano all the way out Leesburg and up Congress. NID had a flat on the climb, so a few of us stopped to wait. The rest stopped about a click up the road. Once going again, the pace picked up, but only slightly. This is where the story of the long, slow group ride comes to it's fruition.
After the right hand turn onto Chaingang, all bets were off and hammer met anvil. All I know is that three took off, leaving the rest of us to chase. They were about 200 meters ahead when I decided to jump into the chasm and attempt the bridge. I got within about 25 meters (at 60kmh) and pulled off for someone else to finish it. Well, Doogie was the only one there and he jumped across. I waited for the line to come by, and it did, with Der Kaiser on the front. To quote Phil Liggett, I was 'on the rivet' and 'the elastic was stretched tightly'. I barely caught the line and was able to recover for the remainder of the 50kmh+ run down to Eastover.
NID pulled off and then promptly pushed his way back into the line @ about 500 meters from the sprint, nearly pushing British Andy into the ditch. Your head is on a gimble...turn it! At this point, I was boxed in and watched RW ride away to take it with ease. Just a tip NID, you cannot lead out a sprint from 6th in line.
The pace got turned down from Eastover, through Zeigler and to the Cricket store. After our short break for fuel, we all meandered out of the parking lot. A few guys were up the road and the rest of us believed they'd wait...wrong answer!
Der Kaiser, LL and RW were gone and had no plans to come back. The chasers (me included) had a nice paceline going until the rise on Airbase. A phone escaped from a pocket and the bunch was shattered. I buried myself for the entire length of Airbase and it HURT!
We came back together at the store and rode in together. Der Kaiser attacked about 1km from the bridge sprint. I was waiting for it and jumped across to him with relative ease. I sat on for about 250 meters and then popped him at the line.
All in all, it was a really good ride. We did 85km (55miles) in 2:45 and it had some quality sections of suffering. Although I believe it's too early to be venturing into the Pain Cave, it kind of felt good! I saw 30 second, 1 minute and 5 minute wattage records yesterday...in November...crazy!

Oh, and there was a new Madone on the ride yesterday...puke...

No ride today...
It's 45 degrees...
Cloudy...
and spitting rain...
Call me a wussy if you like, but QuickStep isn't writing me a check to ride in shit weather. Come February, my tune will change, but right now, I'm staying in the warm house.