Todays ride was going to be a nice easy pace, because the back wasn't playing nice today. I love to stand and climb but with the back that wasn't going to be that case today. So I went out and did my 25 mile roller route. with the temp at 82 degrees, and a 6-8 wind. All of a sudden much to my surprise I spotted what looked like a roadie about 300 yards ahead of me when I took a right turn. In my neck of the woods that's not something I often run into, so lets see about meeting up with him. I increase my speed to 25mph and after a 1/2 mile I'm not making much progress closing the gap. Now I've got a right, left, left coming up then almost 2 1/2 miles of straight flats. I lost my view of him and wasn't sure he went the same way as I was going. Yahoo he's on the long flat straight now I've got to go into TT mode to catch him, problem I see him looking back. will he wait or will he try and stay away. Well my answer came quick as I see him get out of the saddle and he's in sprint mode to widen the gap. I can't get out of the saddle so I just get as aero as possible and hammer away. Lookin down at my speed I'm hitting 31mph and am starting to gain ground, and it took me almost 2 miles to finally catch him. No words were said and we swapped pulls for the next 1 1/2 miles.
But it didn't end their because I noticed right form the start when were doing pulls he was doing 15 seconds less on each pull than me. look I've played that game in races before so I knew this guy has done some racing. Now I'm at a point where I've got a left and quick right then 3 1/2 to the house. So as I signal that I'm going left he makes it look like he's going right. I do my left and start to ramp it up for a quick right, and notice he's back on my wheel. So I let off a tad and pull out so he can pull but he didn't come thru. So now I've got a small incline followed by 200 yards of flats before a little larger incline. I jump the first little incline (bad back feels better) and I can hear him going thru his gears, quick look under my arm and I've got a gap. So now it's hammer the next flat and attack the larger incline. As I top the last incline I look back and he ( 75 yards back) gives me a wave and his head goes down .
I finish off the ride in TT mode for the next 2 3/4 miles, now the back is feeling better than when I started. Sure hope we cross paths again, then maybe we'll talk for a bit. Who knows how far he had ridden already, but it was sure fun that he wanted to play.
