My last day of the Rapha Festive 500 started early, the earliest actually.  I rolled out at 4:30!

I headed down Gulf Blvd to meet up with my new Largo riding bud Craig of Outspokin Bikes.

We had an easy spin down the key and back with one of his coworkers on a Di2 Ultegra equipped Giant.

My last Florida sunrise of 2011 was great.  We had 40+ miles behind us by 7:30.

We headed back towards Largo to meet up with a Ride’n’Roll group. I snuck an espresso in.

This ride was usually was supposed to add up to around 60 miles.

I was stoked to be maybe wrap up the contest with a century.

Below I ran into a fellow Rapha-wearer, Lane, who’s daughter gave him his jersey.

She is studying abroad in Holland.  His PRO team bibs are the favorite bibs he owns.

Here’s a shot of the group.  We were barely up to tempo and buddy in the back is feelin the burn!

The fog was starting to burn off. I caught a glimpse of it here.  Reminds me of one of Stefan’s ; )

Another ‘instragram’ of the group after a sprint.

I also spied this Ti Serotta.  His third, after two steel Serottas he upgraded to titanium.

Those bullet holes aren’t real but I wouldn’t put it past these horrendous Florida motorists.

Another new friend I made this trip, John Holmes, snapped these two shots of me and Adam.

The funny thing here, besides Adam making me look skinnier than I am…

Is that his son is actually allergic to pistachios.

Needless to say, his wife did not wholly approve of his kit but paired with hi-viz Oakleys, it looks good!

I peeled off from the group early to get home and ride with my family to the beach.

That put me 10 shy of a century and at 53rd place.

We’ll see if I have the time and motivation to rank higher next year.

Kristian & Stefan set the bar pretty high!

Photos from all 8 days are here and strava details here.

I enjoyed logging all of these miles and would like to thank my family for wrangling Otto in the AMs,

Rapha for the clever idea to get 3k+ people out and riding and John Prolly for the props!