I'm Hooked On Wednesday

Yesterday afternoon I loaded up my bike, all my cycling gear, and myself into the Xterra and headed towards the O-Town Airport (Orlando International for those of you not from around here). It was a 50 minute drive along some of the Central Florida toll roads to the east side of the airport. Since this was my first time joining the Wednesday evening ride, I arrived WAY early and drove the loop that we were going to ride. It was a beautiful 4 lane, divided highway with a wide shoulder on both sides. The ride started at 6:00 pm so the most important part of the road was the numerous street lights that were planted every 25 yards along both sides of the street.
I followed all the cars with bikes hanging off the back and parked at the end of a side street. It was just after 5:00 pm so I got all set to ride and headed out for a warm up loop. There were a lot of other people with the same idea and I chatted with a couple of guys who were 'regulars' and they gave me the official 'run down' on the turn-arounds, sprint lines, areas of glass, etc.
At 6:00 pm, on the dot, about 65-75 bikes rolled out of the parking lot and headed out for the first of four loops along Heintzelman Blvd. We were actually in the middle of the airport...the planes were landing on one side of us, taxing along the bridges above our road, and over to the airport terminal on our other side...never a quiet moment! The first ½ of the first loop is considered the "warm-up" and only averages about 20-22mph. As soon as we are around the first 180-degree-turn, the group starts GOING!
For the next 30 miles we averaged above 25mph! Not only did I manage to just hang on with all the fast guys, I was pulling through multiple times and enjoying every moment! There was a great side wind so I had many opportunities to practice placing myself on the correct side of the echelon. Basically, it was a PERFECT, amazing, fun, new, and EXTREMELY HARD training ride! I can't wait to tell all my teammates about it and convince Cliff to put this on our weekly training schedule for the whole month of January!

This is the map of the ride loop from the Windermere Roadies website.