- Nine riders met at 6:00 AM: Mallet, Ags, RedRocket, Harvey, IvaHawk, BobH, Norris, BobH Friend, and a stranger out of the blue who turned out to be a good guy. I apologize for not remembering Bob and Norris’s friend’s name.
- The stranger out of the blue drove up from Wilmington Friday night just to ride with us. He found out about the ride because Martin linked the Irregular blog web site to a common rando site. So this guy being from Wilmington, being a rando guy, and needing some hill work decided to come up to north Raleigh and ride with these Irregular guys. At first, everyone else thought he was a friend of someone else’s or a rando friend of Martin’s. I shall reveal his name now using Irregular protocol until and if Martin bestows a nickname: RichR
- We nine shoved off and made our rendezvous with Martin and RRtRR at the fire station on New Light. They were starting there because they were doing a 200K rando permanent. Their route coincided with ours for 20 miles. So now there were eleven.
- On the way, someone had to stop for a flo max break. Martin, with the engines on steady state cruise power said “I'm not stopping”. So Martin and RRtheRR continued onward. But, eventually, the peloton caught back up to them. As we did, the peloton slowed, and Ags, in his best Martin impression, bellowed out "Why are we slowing?! Why are we slowing!!??" Everyone including Martin got a good guffaw out of that.
- At Hwy 158, Martin and RRtheRR had to stop to get their cards signed and the Norris group turned around because they were doing 60 miles. So now there were six: Mallet, Ags, Harvey, RedRocket, RichR, and me. Guess who was the anchor in that group! Hint: not RichR.
- RichR was riding a beautifully restored bike outfitted for randoneuring. It was a 1985 Trek Elance. Chrome fenders, mud flaps, rando suitcase style front basket. RichR is a strong rider and had no trouble keeping up with the fast guys.
- We got to Stovall. Here I found out how and why RichR joined us. Up until then, we didn't know. We saw some female EMT professionals washing their ambulance over at the fire station. So, after refreshments in the gazebo, we went over to see them because the store had no big waters. They seemed glad to see us and let us fill up.
- Leaving Stovall, we hit Mountain Road. That is a GOOD hill. I got KILLED (not literally) by the other five. I fell way behind. The rest of the time, I was fine. But, on Mountain Road, not.
- After joining back up, we all moved along nicely to Stem and Creedmore - business as usual. At the lake on Old Weaver, Harvey told me he was gassed. He’s been on vacation with cocktails and other leisure activities. So I "pulled" him up Old Weaver. The other four were way ahead. Once we got to the top of Old Weaver and turned on New Light, Harvey said let's catch them. He lit the afterburners. Soon we were going 30 plus with me hanging on. We flew by the other four just before the overpass at Col de Ghoston.
- On the famous GPeedMVC finish, Harvey and I fell towards the rear. Mallet took off like a rocket. Harvey recovering pulled away from me. I could see Ags far ahead. The others were some distance in front of him.
- I was the last one in the parking lot. RedRocket had ridden on his way. Mallet, Ags, Harvey, and RichR were packing up. Ags and I stayed and talked to RichR for awhile before Ags dropped me back home.
- It turns out that RichR is going to do the same Washington DC 400K Ags is going to do. So they exchanged cell numbers.
- Without extra credit, the ride was 88.4 miles. I ended up with 91 miles because I rode to PUE.
- Weather: clear, sunny, hot, perfect
I recall that "BobH Friend" was actually named "Ken".
ReplyDeleteIvaHawk -
ReplyDeleteAs regards: "He found out about the ride because Martin linked the Irregular blog web site to a common rando site."
That is not correct.
There is a common rando site (created and maintained by your former co-worker, one AndyD) that has had this blog on its lists of links for nearly a year now.
There is another rando blog, that added a link to this blog just last week, and there has been a large increase in traffic since then. I think R^2 may have gotten to this blog via that new connection ... though why R^2 may have been attentatively reading a blog from Seattle more than checking on Andy's blog of RUSA blogs ... ???
And it is possible that R^2 has been checking this blog for the last few months (ever since he joined RUSA -- probably in April). I keep telling you guys that the "rando world" audience is bigger than the "Irregulars world" audience.
Look at the "pageviews" in the right sidebar ... for ~ 20 people to accumulate 12 thousand pageviews since May-2009, every Irregular would have had to look at this blog 600 times each ... that's almost once a day, every day, for two years ... not likely.
Just goes to show that you and I need to keep on our toes regarding what we write.
...M