TdF, Juniors and Seniors...

Up early (for me) this morning and out of the house and the road by 9:05. The day promised to be warm and humid but no rain. I have a century coming up next Saturday and decided that today would be the day to run the test. So I headed out for the hills of Hunterdon and then straight north up the Delaware River to Frenchtown. I deliberately skipped Federal Twist (long climb, hits 22/23%) and chose to go for distance. With that being said I finished with respectable 84 miles, almost 4K of climbing and a 15 mph average...I think I should be able to do my flat century without too much trouble. The highlight of the day was 5 or 6 miles of riding with a boy I'd guess was 12 or 13. He appeared before me on a long, rolling but mostly downhill stretch of road at about the 60 mile point for me. He was dressed in full racing kit, right down to the shoes, and was wearing a time-trialer's helmet. When he saw me coming up on him he kicked it up a bit and kept looking back to see where I was - seeing that twisting head/helmet was so much like watching some of the chase scenes in the Tour last week I had to smile. Every time I would close on him he would look back and kick it up again and move out to maybe a 20 yard gap. I really wasn't looking for a race but every time we would go into a downhill I would inevitably start gaining on him again without even trying, a function of outweighing him by at least 50 and maybe 75 pounds. Finally, on one fairly long stretch I did in fact pass him and shouted a "looking good" as I went by. He immediately locked himself onto my wheel and I pushed it up a little bit and pulled him up the next couple of miles - all uphill. At this point we were coming into the next town and I was starting to look for my turn. All of a sudden he launched his attack and giving it his all passed me and started moving away, all the while turning to look back and see if I would respond....My left turn came and my last sight of this aspiring Andy Schleck was the young man half standing and twisting his head around to see if I was going to respond. He had great form on the bike and was working so hard I had to smile at this little mini-race he had started with someone who could be his grandfather...Breaking Away in the NJ cornfields.