The yellow powder caking your body and frame today smacked of irony for the those (un)fotunate enough to be in attendance on Tucker today. We needed not the reminder from nature of spring's fertility. The peloton erupted into full bloom from km 0. And as the azaleas and magnolias came to life around us, we were dying a thousand deaths.
Baby got off to a quicker than normal start but with many cagey veterans sitting in, warming up before a planned exit to drift back and catch the Full Grown crowd. This seems to be a blossoming strategy amongst the cognoscenti of the PTN.
Nick on the P and Dillon sprang off the front of Full Grown as soon as we cleared the last light on Hugh Howell, never to be seen again. The pour souls left behind faced the ethereal brutality of Jim S. and Vargas who seemed hell bent on keeping it a single file affair. Many were lost on the climb up Norris, so asphyxiated they could've hidden their own Easter eggs. Several gruppettos formed, the detritus of an unrelenting pain machine that rolled on with no mercy or compunction. A few caught back on after taking calculated shortcuts. Mores the pity.
Chapeau to those that held on, including Dan Pod, Kirk, Mark, Thom, Wueste, others. Many set top 3 PR times for the full Tucker segment today even if dropped. Damn.
If this is the pace we are seeing at the end of March...
Admin Items:
Last Airport tomorrow. Single tear. 10:00am roll. Wet and chilly at the start.Perfect.
NNL and PZA move to 6:30pm start times next week.