May-23: Lt. Daaave's 3 hump ride

May-23:

Hanging Rock: to Pilot Mtn, to Sauartown, return to Hanging Rock; me + 5 "Irregulars", 5 ProgressEnergyCrew, 7 LeeB crew; 40.8 miles, 2hrs, 59min, 13.6 mph avg pace.

1st Qt. tot: 20 rides; 755.3 m.; 47 hrs, 31 min; 15.9 mph.
Apr tot: 13 rides; 666.4 m.; 42 hrs, 58 min; 15.5 mph.
May tot: 10 rides, 528.7 m.; 33 hrs, 12 min; xx.x mph.
YTD: 43 rides; 1950.4 m.; 123 hrs, 39 min; xx.x mph.

"Irregulars" crew: DntW, Duke, Iva, PaulS, Phil, me.
Had never met any of the ProgressEnergyCrew (although I know where one lives).
Had never met any of the LeeB crew.

First, for the "interesting" / nearly humorous stuff:

• A couple days before the ride, Iva asked my opinion of when to leave Saturday morning. How would I know? I've never driven there. It's not my ride. I directed him to the materials prepared by DntW.
• During the drive to Hanging Rock, PaulS called my cell phone to ask why we were going around the south side of Greensboro if we were headed for a place somewhere north of Winston-Salem. I didn't feel the vibration of my phone tucked away in my pocket. But, how would I know? I've never driven there. It's not my ride. And I was sure that DntW would get to Hanging Rock. And I was riding in Phil's vehicle, and he knew several ways to get to HR, having driven there more than once himself. But I didn't realize that PaulS had called, and I wasn't worried, it wasn't my ride.
• DntW led the 18-strong group down the hill to the park entrance. Iva was in fourth position, I was in fifth. I saw the second and third riders turn left just after the park gate; apparently Iva did not. He continued blythely on his wrong-way. Luckily, shouts from several of us got his attention. I had decided I was not going to chase him farther down that hill. It wasn't my ride and I wasn't worried.
• Later, getting close to Pilot Mtn, I started letting the front group drop off my front. After all, I was comfortable with my pace and DntW was behind me and so was Phil; the ride and cue sheet were DntW's and I knew that Phil also knew at least one way to get to the bottom of Pilot. As I noted, I was dropping the front group off my front, when whoosh . . . there went Iva bridging to the front group. . . . . . . Just in time to be with the front group when they missed the turn onto Bowen Rd. Second wrong-way for Iva.
• A couple minutes later I hear coming from well behind "Mawten." "Mawten." "Wrong-way." "MAWTEN, wrong-way." Before I actually comprehended what was being shouted, I heard DntW mutter "I made the cue sheet, I know whether this is the wrong way or not." A few moments later, a not-even breathing hard PaulS catches up and starts to tell DntW, Phil and me that we are going the wrong way. But DntW told him that WE were on the cue-sheeted course, but that the other road would also get the front group to Pilot, but their route would just be a bit longer than ours. I hadn't been worried. I was with the ride leader, DntW; Irregulars rule #3 comes in handy, you know. And Phil also mostly knew his way about.
• Due to events described below, I was not with Iva on his return journey from Pilot via Sauartown to Hanging Rock. But apparently Iva took the boogie prize for the day by later turning the wrong-way for the third time. Lucky for Iva that Frank is already christened "Wrong-Way".

It seemed I had good legs on the way from Hanging Rock to the bottom of Pilot Mtn, but that may have been more due tot he relatively easy course and/or tailwind. The wait at the bottom of Pilot for those doing the climb (I had figured on 1/2 an hour or so) turned out to be quite a bit longer. At first because some who likely would have been better off saving their legs for Sauartown decided to do Pilot, but not being ready to start until at least 15 minutes after the initial climbers had started, and being likely to take 1/2 an hour just to make the climb, lengthened the wait to a probable 45 minutes. Then, the wait got longer because Paul of Norwood Rd was unlucky enough to shred his front tire on the descent, and . . . the wait for ambulance and the return of non-injured riders ensued. The total wait / stoppage time turned out to be more like an hour-and-a-half. After the restart, with the increase in the "hilliness", I had no legs.

As our "tail-ender" group of Paul of Norwood friends, the Duke, me, and DntW (organizer of the ride) made its way towards Sauartown, it became clear that I was the only one considering doing Sauartown. After I told Dave that I had no legs, we skipped the approach to Sauartown, shorted the ride, and headed more directly back toward Hanging Rock.

For awhile, I started to get some legs again, being able to climb Mickey Rd well enough that I passed both the Duke and Dave. However, my climb up HR was no fun. Last month, I had climbed with cadence and zip in the legs. This time, no zip, no cadence, just slow, not-quite-methodical rolling over of the pedals. I had to stop once on the HR climb to let an ambulance pass (they had given me a blast of horn or siren indicating their desire that I halt my motion); I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was able to resume my 6 mph "assault" within only a few pedal strokes. Later, on one of the steeper sections I was getting awfully wobbly at 4.0 mph; I decided to get off the bike and walk for a bit; walking 2.2 mph was easier than the riding and not that much slower; the incline softened and soon I was walking 3.5 mph; I got back on the bike (having covered 0.17 miles on foot) and finished the climb.

Since our "tail-ender" group had shorted the ride, and since the Duke had stopped riding just before the entrance to HR Park, and Dave and the 3 remaining ProgressEnergyCrew took a refreshment break just inside the Park entrance, I was first back to the parking lot. My "reward" for that was that I got to break the bad news about Paul of Norwood to the waiting wives. Luckily, the 3 ProgressEnergy guys arrived after a few minutes and were able to provide a more complete report.

At the time this is being written, the latest report is that Paul of Norwood did NOT fracture his collar bone, but only suffered a dislocated shoulder. That is good news. All the same, his accident did take the bloom off the ride.

And my second trip to "mountains" I have to judge a bit of a failure because I wimped out of doing Sauartown and had to walk part of Hanging Rock. I will also note, that although the ride was not "mine", and I was not "worried" about Paul of Norwood (because what could I do, what could I accomplish by worrying), I was concerned when the news of his fall was reported to those of us waiting at the bottom of Pilot.

Oh, one further thing: thanks to PaulS for "defending" the honor of the Irregulars and taking the KOM points on both Pilot and Sauartown. As noted above, the KOM for Hanging Rock was neutralized.

Oh, oh. One absolutely last thing. PaulS told me that he thought DntW was not in position to see, so I just want to make sure that Dave knows who took the CL points as we neared Pilot. It wasn't Dave. It wasn't Phil. It wasn't PaulS. Sometimes there are advantages to having a downslope gravity advantage: such as when you look up and see that you are clear of the group for the unexpected CL.