Orlando Bike Rides

This morning we set out from the Avalon Park YMCA. One of the ride leaders from the A Group decided he was bored with the route and wanted to change it up a bit. He suggested adding a loop to Oviedo and back around to Fort Christmas then up Taylor Creek and the old route back to the YMCA in Avalon Park. We started with a group of about 10 at our regular 16-18 mph warm up. We were feeling pretty good after completing the Horrible Hundred last weekend so we started increasing speed. We were pulling at 23-26 mph on our way to Oviedo and everyone was taking their turn. When we were on a side street I looked back and we dropped about 4 riders so we were moving strong with 6 riders and the pulls were getting longer. We have 3 guys in the group that had awesome day pulling – Gordon King, John Turner and Doug Preble, thanks guys. As we rolled down Taylor Creek Road I thought we were killing it running 25-26 mph. When we got to the end of Taylor Creek I said to Gordon wow we are moving head said that was a tailwind. So true, that was a tailwind and the next 10 miles were rough to say the least. We could  barely get over 22 mph and in the fields the wind pushed back and made it difficult to sustain 21.5 mph. There were some manly pulls going on and I really dug deep like everyone else and suffered. We made it back and were out of the wind on Lake Pickett and the pace picked up again. We were all pulling and the speeds were increasing again until Gordon approaching Chuluoto Road decided it would be cool to run close to 25 mph and I was almost spent. We all hung in there but we finished as a group of four with an average of 21.5 mph for 60.38 miles. Nice work guys see you in a few days.