Thursday morning speed workout: El Dorado Park.  6:15am || 45 minutes|| High Tempo || 1.75 mile circuit.

Once again, two of the big motors [UberFred Deluxe & SuperFreddie] were missing.   El Señor Tortuga [the Assassin] was left to own devices to entertain himself.

Nothing extraordinary.  The Assassin couldn’t get away.  He attacked, taking the Mexican with him and the Yellowman  in tow.  The Mexican took his pull in the break and uncharacteristically got back in with the encouragement of the Assassin ["come-on, come-on, get back on!"] and continued as Yellowman took a pull and then [Yellowman] totally blew.  They held everyone off for about one lap and then it all swelled back together again.  Yellowman came off after his pull in that miserable break and was never to be seen again.

On the final lap after turn three, two cars were on the course.  The peloton slowed to assess the intent of the vehicles [much to the chagrin of the Assassin] and then went around the cars just before the fire station.  Picarelli [the Little Italian] was up the road about 150 yards.  DrDave was driving at the front, followed by James, the Mexican, Crawford and the rest.  The Mexican knew they’d close the gap easily before the sprint.  Through turn four Picarelli could feel the heat as the gap diminished.  Over the manhole cover, the Mexican jumped around Fixie, closed the gap on the Little Italian, held off Crawford and everyone else all the way to the line.

The Mexican declared the victory satisfying yet melancholy; he missed the sweet [like pan dulce] opportunity to have matched wits with Mr. Bubbles. [Mr. Bubbles didn't show for the morning ride]

Mr Bubbles has declared: “…need to settle a score with a certain sombrero wearing cyclist.”

The Assassin was pissed that everyone continued to the sprint and  totally disregarded the cars on the course.  He turned and left to go home, grumbling to himself about everyone’s pathetic performance and their lack of caution regarding the cars.  I told him if he had simply kept the pace about .5 mph higher we would have been well ahead of the 7:00 opening to cars in the park.

Lesson: When there are too few big motors in the peloton, it’s “2 to go” at 6:47 – not “3″.