Shootout!

When my alarm went off at 5:45, I didn't rally feel like waking up. We had set up the coffee maker the night before, so Dallas had it going early.

We hit the road a 6:30am sharp to get down to Euclid and University by 7. I nearly hit a small Toyota on the driveway to our community. Lady was on our side of the road, and pinned it once she saw me to get over to the other side of the road. I was definitely awake after that. Dallas grabs a coffee down at Starbucks, we hit the washroom, and get ready to go. The oldsters head out 10 minutes early.

7am everyone heads out. We ride calmly through the city, probably 100 people. Easy pace off the start, conversational. Saw a few Albertans, a few guys who were just characters were fun to listen to, fast looking guys were talking about recent races. A guy looked over at me and said "Canadian, right?". Yup. "How long you down here for?" Just this week, it's been great. "Careful man, the Shootout is habit forming." I sort of liked the sound of that.

We get out of town, and things start heating up. With 30 hours in my legs, I'm riding consevatively. Devin is hanging back too. I'm trying to drink a bit more than I otherwise would, my legs feel ok and my lungs aren't doing too bad. I realize it's getting heated up when I see Gord Frasier going by on the outside of the peloton. Old Motorola shorts, a little cycling cap, and a gleaming old steel Peugeot with downtube shifters, a white leather saddle, and gleaming silver 32 spoke wheels. I have no idea who makes gold colored derailleurs, but it was a gleaming work of art. I think bikes only nead to be cleaned once a year down here, and this thing was beautiful. This is the bike as rumored, everyone had been talking around town that "Gord brought some old 10 speed out to the shootout and won the sprint."

It's a gentle grade to the peak, and the pace started picking up. I see around up a bend up to the front, and see an Alberta jersey off the front with Dallas hammering away. II was eating, and next thing I knew there's a gap opening up in front me. Hammer time to keep up. My legs are burning, and I'm still about 1/3 pack and wondering if this gets fast enough to break up the group. Time to hammer a bit. Next thing I know, a guy behind me is yelling KOM, 1km. I see Devin blow by on the right, and realize this is the "big climb". I see what looks like a crest, and pull out to the left and go for it. What's different on this ride vs. the cabin jam is that everyone regroups and coasts at the top. Some Canadian national team kid with a baseball cap and huge legs took the sprint... Buck maybe? (Earlier in the week Dallas met Buck. I'm Dallas. "Hi, I'm Buck." Is that short for Buck-wheat? I understand the conversation ended about there.)

This is the top, and I'm not spent too bad. It's all downhill home, 50k or so. We make the left for the short loop, which I think was about 100k, there's an option to go right and do 180k. That'd be the one to do for some real training, but would need more than a 1 week early season training primer to hold on. I'm not afraid to waste energy and pull now as we head back, I'm better at downhill pulling anyway. I start chasing Dallas, and we've got a 6 person group going. We're going fast, and as I pull through on a rotation Gord pulls through in front of me. We've got a good rotation going, about 8 guys, including some of the bigger guys who do down better than up.

Dallas does a few of his sprintervals to keep the pace up, and I didn't have my camera ready unfortunately for the effort that put him off the front with Gord reeling him back in. As we get closer to town, the pace picks up, with more guys launching off the front. I'm having fun wasting energy on chasing and bridging up. I close the gap down on one guy, but the next guy that pulls through doesn't cut in front of me to give me any draft, sorta uncool. So I peter out and drift back. Takes me a minute to regroup and get on, then I make my way forward again.

There was some big sprint but I didn't see it. After that we coast the final few blocks back to the coutyard of coffee shops by the university. Time to shoot the shit, relive the glory days and all that good stuff. The short version of the ride really wasn't all that hard. It's obviously hard to be at the front of the sprints with such a deep field, but it's nowhere near as cut throat as the Cabin Jam where you blow and are off for good. And it's easy to draft in a huge pack rather than wheelsucking two people on a windy Calgary day. Anyone who is a cyclist would have a place in the ride, and would enjoy it. Self selecting out of the ride and not showing up because it's called "the Shootout" is a mistake.