The Cast:
1) Snapper - short, 2) BobH - long, 3) Norris - long, 4) IvaHawk - long, 5) Mallet - short + to-from home, 6) Smitty - short, 7) Tito - long, 8) Ivan - short, 9) Agnew - long, 10) Ivan's friend Andy - short, 11) me - long + a little extra
The Plot:
"Strategy", or "The County Line Conspiracy"
The Results:
Very sunny day.
Some nice scenery. Esp. early on Lawrence and all of Bold Run Hill roads. Also John Mitchell, Woodland Ch, Hugh Davis, Mays Store, Suitt/Evans, Gordon Moore roads.
Good fun.
Oh, the results of the County Line "sprints":
1. Mallet - apparently he zipped around the main group after bridging from the autobus
2. me - the Mallet let me have it / fit nicely in the "conspiracy"
3. Smitty - I was too far back to "understand" the action up front
4. Smitty - 0.6 miles after # 3; probably caught everyone in the front group unawares
5. Smitty - Iva and Tito tried to go the wrong way on John Mitchell Rd. The Mallet took off; the "evil" Smitty caught him.
6. Mallet - he was well back when I told him "it is time for you to make a move" / he pulled away up the slope
7. Tito - the "conspiracy" lead-out-man beat off the "evil" Smitty
8. BobH - the smaller "long crew" rode thru as a group; no one made an attempt. (That's what I heard.)
9. BobH - the "long crew" rode thru as a group; no one made an attempt. (That's what I SAW.)
10. BobH - first three probably rode thru as a group; I'm guessing. I was back at the corner waiting for the flo-max twins.
11. Hawk - see my comment on the "Strategy" post
12. Tito - He accelerated early on Rock Springs Rd. Iva and I could not hang on. The others may have bridged. Iva and I never saw the lead foursome again. Only Tito was still at PUE. Iva had the key to the car.
Other stuff:
Tito got a flat just as we got to Gordon Moore / Pokomoke Rd on the way back. Iva was looking around and squeezing his tires because he thought that the sound of leaking air had come from his bike. Norris and BobH and Agnew checked their bikes. I had fallen back a bit, and got to the corner AFTER the flatting sound. Finally, Norris or BobH (? - memory fails) saw the flat and said "Tito, it's your front tire." Luckily, Tito had picked a very sunny place out of the breeze to get his flat. We all waited. Some helped. The remainder just enjoyed the extra rest stop.
The Hawk found what appears to be a very nice and functional tape measure at the corner of Peed and MVC. A profitable ride for him.
A mile later, the rear of the autobus called ahead to the front of the autobus "I have a flat. But I'm going to keep going." Iva rode the climb up to PUE on a flat front tire. Hard core!
Post-Mortem:
I hope everyone enjoyed the ride. I had much pleasure in figuring out the course - which I did about a year ago, I think.
A nice thing about today's course is that it can TRULY be ridden as a hill-cadence training exercise. I think Andy KNOWS it was a hill-cadence exercise. Thanks to Snapper and host Spronk for taking care of guest Andy.
I hope Ivan convinces Andy to come again and try us again. I think he might make the second person in the group that I can out-climb. I doubt that the next few rides will be quite as hilly as today's was. However, as we all know: there are no flat courses north of Raleigh.
I am tired. But I expect to be fit as fiddle by Noon tomorrow!
This was only one Shadow course. There are many more !!
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Mar-06:
PUE: (1) 12-CL Fest; 55.5 m.; 3hrs, 44min; 14.8 mph;
. . . . . . . .(2) some solo on the flat near PUE; 7.6 m.; 0hrs, 32min; 14.0 mph;
. . . . . . . . . . . .total 63.1 m.; 4hrs, 16min; 14.8 mph.
( Probably should have ridden another 0.9 miles to get my 64th ride of at least 64 miles; but I was passing PUE and the extra miles were not fun; so I stopped; at least I got in 100+k.)
Jan tot: _4 rides; 208.5 m.; 12 hrs, 54 min; 16.1 mph.
Feb tot: _4 rides; 222.0 m.; 14 hrs, 47 min; 15.0 mph.
Mar tot: _1 rides; _63.1 m.; _4 hrs, 16 min; 14.8 mph.
YTD tot: _9 rides; 493.6 m.; 31 hrs, 58 min; 15.4 mph.
The evil Smitty. i kinda like the sound of that.
ReplyDeleteNice ride today. And, thanks to Martin for his ingenious routing and tour direction. These Feb and March rides, although shorter than when we quit in '09, have been grueling for me. Good it be I'm getting old. Nah.. Iva I'll comment on the conspiracy over there. Iva
ReplyDeleteI meant "could" not "good" Iva
ReplyDeleteI think the evil Smitty took the long sprint on CL#5, after I ran out of gas and sat down thinking no one had gone with me - wrong.
ReplyDeleteThe evil Smitty also took the last CL on the "short" way home as I underestimated his evil powers for the second time that day. He had earlier told me how he had expended more effort on the ride than he had planned so I was fairly confident he wouldn't bother contesting the last one if I got a decent lead - wrong. Again I had gone too early and Smitty's evil powers took him by me with a few yards to spare.
The dark side is easier, more seducive, but I know Jedi Master Geepee Ess will bring the force into balance.
Mallet
The following was originally sent as an e-mail, and is somewhat redundant with the above comment by the Mallet, but ...
ReplyDeleteSomeone was able to catch the Mallet on CL #5, and pass him. After that one that same someone told the Mallet he was done contesting CL's for the day.
On the way back in to Wake County the Mallet broke for that line and the same someone was able to catch and pass him for that one as well. Possibly because the Mallet was laughing about how that person was not going to go for any more CL's but lured into going.
Smitty
verification word: shilin
The following was originally sent as an e-mail, but ...
ReplyDeleteThe plot was a little more sinister than the one described by the blog owner. Tito flatted. After a twenty minute tube change ( read: heavy legs ), both Tito and Iva emerged seemingly bonked from changing the 650 tube hand sewn in Quito, Ecuador. Then Iva made his move.
Agnew
The following was originally sent as an e-mail, but ...
ReplyDeletejohn speaks with authority. as a matter of fact, john was a witness to the first flat. he noted that the flat thing was part of martin's devilish scheme to get iva to be so recovered from any heaviness so as to swoop down upon the unsuspecting velo maniacs and then seize a C L. very clever indeed. then later iva, as if in karmic destiny, flatted. unlike me, he rode on anyway, sort of like one Lance type of guy.
one effect of my tire failure was for me to contact nashbar tonight to buy some of those rare 650 tires (with ecuadorian secretive sew up features) and then perhaps to fill them with lighter than air hydrogen. probably all part of martin's next deranged plot.
Tito
Given the above information, I have changed the result for CL #5.
ReplyDeleteWhat is going on? The Mallet losing CL sprints, without putting his foot through his spokes?!
That new used bike must have been throwing off the Mallet's alignment. Without mud guards and a rack for panniers, he probably just couldn't get comfortable.
I told Iva, when we were bringing in the autobus, that the "conspiracy" not getting CL #5 was - in high measure - my fault. Early in the ride, Smitty appeared to be struggling a bit, having trouble getting loose. So, I did him a "favor", and didn't send him with Ivan and the Mallet to bridge to the front group on Beaver Dam Rd to contest that sprint. If Smitty had expended the energy to bridge that gap, I was thinking he might not have had the energy to contest CL #7.
Now, I find that the same might have applied to CL #5, etc..
No future sympathy for the "evil" Smitty !
Here's hoping that the the "evil one's" butt was dragging might bad on Sunday when he and the Cheetah did their 11-mile run. Maybe Snapper "rubbed it in" a little if Smitty's butt was dragging. ;-)
...M
Tito wrote: "then later iva, as if in karmic destiny, flatted. unlike me, he rode on anyway, sort of like one Lance type of guy."
ReplyDeleteIva is too nice a guy to compare to *ance *rmstrong.
I prefer comparing him to Lon Haldeman. Who once, when riding with his wife Susan as she was attempting to set a trans-continental cycling speed record, flatted his rear tire, and dropped back from Susan. The short version of the story is that Lon rode 40 miles, standing the entire way to reduce the pressure on the rear tire, until he managed to catch Susan's support vehicle before they took off again. Apparently, he almost caught the support vehicle several times, but they repeatedly pulled away before he could get within hailing distance. The support vehicle people likely just figured that Lon was doing some training exercies.
Anyway, by ALL accounts, Lon is a much nicer guy than that *ance guy.
I prefer to compare Iva to Lon.
...M