Florida: Day One

I woke up today to the sound of knocking on the door. I got up and looked at the clock - 7:56. What the heck happened to my 6:00 alarm?

Anyway, I was ready to go at about 8:10 and we set off. Gary, Mandy, Gene, and myself rolled for about 3 1/2 hours. Although it ended up in the mid 70's, I wore a SS jersey, LS jersey, vest, knickers, and shorts. I wanted to stay hot and try and get good for the rest of the trip. It worked as I drank four bottles of water over the ride. No flats so that was nice.

Gary rode on a single speed (not fixed) - 42x17. Last year, we started sprinting for town and county line signs - a point for a town sign, two for a county. As we approached the first one (I was riding with my head down so didn't know it was there), Mandy said there was a sign, so I told her to go for it. Gary jumped as soon as he heard her go though and it was no contest. He ended up taking all the sprints.

Gary kept looking at me and cracking up. I may not be GQ material but I don't look that funny. I asked him what was up - he told me I looked like I was really suffering. Which was true. The thing was we were going about 17 mph. On relatively flat roads, with basically no wind. So he was cracking up.

We would switch riding partners every now and then. I noticed that both Gene and I would let the other two keep talking on the hills. It's a good rule of thumb - be a great listener on the hills.

We rolled around the U of Florida campus towards the end of the ride and met some of Mandy's former co-workers. There were a lot of students walking around - I realized I didn't remember what day it was. Friday, in case you were wondering.

Tomorrow we're doing another early ride and then going to the Gator Football pep rally. Ten years ago, there were 60,000 people at the pep rally after they won their last National Championships. The last pep rally I went to had about 1200 people - one of the ones at my high school.

Luckily, I remembered to pack my Gators shirt.