"Would you like your spanking with Tzatziki?"

In front of the Asian Student Association celebration that was held at the flagpole, we had a strong group show up, Nicky (fresh off a victory in the Tuesday night crits), Travis, Noah, Michael, and Caryn joined me for our weekly thrashing.

Travis was so enthused about Nicky's victory that he decided to get his license and race next week! The weather was making everyone feel excited to be on the bike as you could not ask for a better evening. We arrived at the lake, and Michael had this notion of setting up situations for the three students to simulate racing situations.

We discussed these scenarios, but confused, we started. Noah, Travis and Nicky waited while Michael, Caryn and I took off. We were to get ahead, have them catch, and then go again, with the guys working to set up Travis in the sprint. I don't think we had enough horsepower though since they caught quickly enough, then Michael makes a strong move to get away (actually, I don't think I have ever seen him go quite as powerfully as that before) then we all chased and Travis made his move from 600 meters out! If Caryn and myself could have worked better together we might have caught him but he surprized us with a move so long out. Bad move at the crits but not so bad tonight.

The next sequence, for Michael, Caryn and myself was to get away and try to stay away, Noah was the designated sprinter from the "kids". So Caryn and I started talking and Michael was gone. I put my head down and try to chase him, and chase, and chase and finally pull him back (about the same spot Travis took off from last lap) I pass him and launch Caryn to the sprint line. All this time we are expecting the team to charge past, but they never did. Noah appears soon enough, I guess he had been chasing. Turns out Nicky met one of his trade club team mates and they talked just long enough to let us have an insurmountable lead! Plus Travis had a pedal issue on his Colnago and tried to straighten that out.

Next lap was to be tempo all the way around the lake, but Travis and Nicky show the rest of us what tempo really is. As we tried to follow their pace we got to the little rise that gets us next to the lake and I can see Caryn shutting it down, manifold pressure off, oil pressure up, time to put out a few less watts. She was already working on her 50 miles for the day (her mileage by the time we returned to SMU) the rest of us were hoping for 30+. At this time, all she could think of was a line from a computer game of Othello. When the computer Greek god would beat you, he would say "Would you like your spanking with Tzatziki?" That was an endless loop playing in her head. I played domestique and pulled her as the rest disappear quickly. Michael commented that it was a thing of beauty to see Travis and Nicky alternate pulls so effortlessly.

The rest of the way around the lake was tempo (19-21 mph) and we rode together well.
The city limit sprint? My one moment of glory on the day!