A few days ago, I thought we might be five, possibly six, riders today: me, Snapper, Duke, LT, Smitty, possibly BobH.
But LT decided he wanted to do a mountain ride, or something going up into Virginia, or at least a hillfest. He settled for a hillfest. He was trying to talk BobH into hillfesting with him; I don't know if he succeeded. Four riders.
Duke went to the mountains for part of the week and became questionable for the ride, and in the event, cancelled the night before. Three riders.
Smitty decided the day before to avoid the morning chill and ride at noon with his daughter. A laudable alternative. A skeptic, however, might wonder if he was actually fabricating a "family excuse" to avoid watching the Red @ Pale-Blue football game. (At the time I am writing this, I do not know the outcome of that game.) Two riders.
When confirming that he had wimped out of a Black Friday ride, Snapper informed that he was bringing his neighbor to ride on Saturday. Three riders. Unlikely that anyone would wimp out.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some things seem never to change:
At 0814, Snapper called to let me know that he was on the way, but that his neighbor Ivan was unfamiliar with getting to PUE, so they were running late. Flat tire on the car. Uncooperative dumpage requirements. Unexpected second dumpage requirements. Neighbor choosing a poor route to get to PUE. /:shaking-my-head:/
Since I can't feel my phone ring once I put it into my jersey pocket, I turned the phone off and finished the bike prep.
Snapper and Ivan arrive, prep their bikes, and we are off by 0840 into the bright sunshine and very little to no breeze. One of those two conditions would remain with us all ride long. The other would slowly change.
Yet another car-back call as we approached Kemp made the GPS unit temporarily forget what route we were doing, and we turned onto Kemp as if doing a shortened lake loop. The GPS unit quickly recovered and came up with an adjustment to the route that would get us the desired 35 miles.
Going down Coley - as opposed to across Carpenter Pond - there is a lot less traffic and we continued talking more than "seriously" riding. At one point on Coley, while heading toward NC-98, I checked my confuser: 14.2 mph. But we were enjoying ourselves.
After the U-turn at NC-98, we began to work a little harder. Only a little. Up Coley, across Carpenter Pond and Leesville roads, down Doc Nichols, down-up Olive Branch and across NC-98, we continued to be bathed in bright sunshine and a noticeable slight northerly breeze became apparent.
Down and up the first segment of Kemp, and up Virgil, enjoying the slight tailwind, the sunshine and more conversation. Snapper and Ivan even managed to not completely separate themselves from the slow climbing me going UP Kemp and up Virgil.
We zipped (?) across Carpenter Pond to Coley and did another entire loop down to the highway and back up. We even managed to get Snapper to practice leading the line at a pace suitably comfortable for everyone (i.e., no rocket engines were fired). Coming back up Coley to Carpenter Pond, Snapper regaled us with tales of his young daughter. Always good to partake in the delights of children, and the delights of the "Shark" and the "shark-tank".
We finished our chilly but sunnily delightful ride across Carpenter Pond and MVC roads. Nothing dramatic made an appearance in those last miles. Nothing from which to build a humorous or "interesting" tale for the ride. Instead, we all enjoyed the last miles of our ride in the sunshine.
Snapper was on a tight schedule - and due to the later arrival (that's my story and I'm sticking to it) the schedule was tighter than Cheeta had planned. I don't think I delayed them leaving -- I'll bet all readers are surprised by that!
Btw, I have to note that Ivan was incredibly predictable; he pointed out every possible obstruction - I'm confident that I didn't; he pointed before every "lane change". We -- well, let's face it, I -- may be too slow for him, but if he shows semi-occassionally, we may have to put him in charge of the few safety comments before every ride.
Finally: two rides in three days, and to each ride an "irregular" has brought a guest -- or, put another way, yet another rider with whom I will be dropping off my front, but not off my back wheel. I foresee many more "reverse break-aways" (as Tito christened them).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nov-28:
PUE: Kemp-Coley-ShadyGr-DocN-Kemp-Virgil-Coley; w/ Snapper, and his neighbor Ivan; 37.0 m.; est 1665 ft climbed --> effort index = 54; 2hrs, 33min; 15.5 mph.
1st Qt. tot: 20 rides; 755.3 m.; 47 hrs, 31 min; 15.9 mph.
2nd Qt. tot: 43 rides; 2124.3 m.; 134 hrs, 59 min; 15.7 mph.
3rd Qt tot: 36 rides; 1947.2 m.; 121 hrs, 48 min; 16.0 mph.
Oct tot: 9 rides; 551.4m.; 35 hrs, 41 min; 15.4 mph.
Nov tot: 7 rides; 284.1m.; 18 hrs, 15 min; 15.7 mph.
YTD: 115 rides; 5662.5 m.; 358 hrs, 14 min; 15.8 mph.
Rolling 12-mos.: 122 rides; 5971.9 m.; 376 hrs, 50 min; 15.8 mph
I wish I had remembered to write about Snapper on Coley Rd impersonating the Mallet describing the end of his B2B bike ride.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea on the impersonation in which Martin mentions - however - I would love for you guys to have seen Martin's little friend on Coley - little fireplug of a dog and in my humble opinion able to outrun M for at least one half mile. . .
ReplyDeleteI refer you to the animation of the two cyclists discussing their ride.
ReplyDeleteI was taking it easy on you & Ivan.