Dave be SMOKED!

Did my regular Sky-Mass 81 miler today but started with 4 other guys of varying strength. The SM100 is only 2 weeks away and I wanted this to be my peak effort before a gentle taper. Knowing this I planned to hammer then wait til they caught up then hammer again. The ride took a bit longer than my solo rides but hurt alot more. They brought this guy Pete who looks like a disciple of a bodybuilder named Tom Platz. Monster legs. Twice as much as me probably. We "raced" up the into 4 mile climb. I was good, on this wheel, until the final stretch and I attacked too early, wilted with my HR at 198 BPM and he beat me by maybe 30 sec, but I beat my old pre-6Gaps TT effort by 47 seconds, with my compact crank: 23:36 is the new benchmark.

Mike from the Sax Quartet I play in did not show at the rest area. I went halfway down the hill and assumed he bailed out. I caught him at MP14, he skipped the stop. The group moved on by the time I made back the 2 miles of 6% so I was playing catch up and did at MP15. Mike bailed soon therafter, this was his first time road riding the big hills and had enough. On and off all day I jousted with Pete, sometimes in front, more often behind. If I could just lose 20 more lbs! He passed me uphill, I caught up down. My style I guess. I feel better laying on the watts when I got a 40 mph breeze. I got some wicked speed downhill as I am confident in my bike and know the road well. Max speed was 47mph, leaning deep in sweeping switchbacks on rte211, I should be a downhill roadbiker.
The Massenutten climb was a joy, watching the 2 guys drop out and walk. I was not gonna walk, NO WAY, measly 12% grade, but my high efforts earlier killed me on that climb. I paid the Man fo sho. Even monster quad Pete said he almost walked. All these guys will be at the S&M100, this was a small flavor of the suffering they will endure, me too. My bro in law calls beer the liquid pain killer, I just hit a couple and must agree, a gift from God this Lager.
Day's stats: 85.3 miles, 5:28 moving time, 7:15 total, 7100 feet climbing