T’was a beautiful day today – both weather and ride. This was the first regular Irregular ride we’ve had in awhile. I’m sure Martin could tell us when the last one was. Martin delegated the ride leadership to me this weekend. With me and others being in between Tour de Moore and Bridge to Bridge, I didn’t want to go too long. The famous Prison Break was selected due to its relative short distance. And, I wanted to ride by the prison again. I like it’s architecture and functional style.
Knowing that not all are riding long next weekend, I offered two options to extend the basic route. The first was to continue on past the Butner to Range Road. From there any distance at all would be possible. The second was to turn left on Beaver Dam / Rock Springs off Old Weaver and do the hills east of Grissom. This would add about 12 miles to the route with good climbing. But, no one selected either option. I suspect all were having such a good time, no one wanted to break up the group. Ah, the group. How could I get this far without saying who was there: El Martin, Mallet (of L’Alpe de Huez fame), Ags, Tito, RRtRR (first ride since PBP), The RED Rocket (of TdM blue room fame), and me.
The whole ride was well paced with all (minus me) taking their turn at the front. It was a good example of Irregular riding at its best.
Martin showed us how it’s done on Old Weaver beating the pack to New Light with a spirited high cadence climb worthy of mention here. He’s climbing well.
Headline news: Ags set a new world record of 14:15 for GhostonPeedMVC. Only Jens Voigt has bettered that time and that was with a wind assist. Not far behind him and setting a personal best was Tito with the excellent time of 14:30. This too would have been a world record had it not been for Ags. Personally, IvaHawk set a PR of his own of 17:14. I might add that the Red Rocket was behind Tito and far ahead of me.
Mallet, Martin, and RRtRR were not trying to set a record today helping Robert (do not pronounce the t) to PUE who is still not totally recovered from his outstanding effort in France. I encourage all of you to go by TLC for bikes where Gary has a PBP photo of Rober(t) proudly displayed.
Thanks again to all for a great ride.
P.S. It was RRtRR's birthday ! After the ride, he produced refreshments for all. His excellent taste was in evidence (probably with advice from LeeD) with a nice selection of beverages.
P.S.S. I got a note from BobH. He and Norris did 80 at the beach getting ready for "The Bridge” as the locals call it.
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Proposed longer ride combo:
Hmmn. Next time?
The "Prison Break" route was created in 2007. At the time it was a major departure from the usual roads I was riding ... and qualified as a pretty LONG / epic ride for me.
ReplyDeleteI know I didn't do the ride in 2007, because I couldn't get anyone to do it with me ... and I was intimidated about the idea of riding on Old-75 by myself.
My recollection is that the first time the Prison Break was ridden "Irregularly" was Jul-19-2008. BobH, Norris, LT, BigWaveDave and "the Duke" did the Prison Break, as a short-option instead of doing the "Mt. Tirzah Tour". I couldn't get any of them interested in the Tirzah Tour ... so when they went straight, I turned toward Bahama and then on to Mt. Tirzah ... solo. The others missed a great ride ... gas had just hit $4 a gallon for the first time ... the 10 or 11 miles from Tirzah to Culbreth ... my recollection is that there was one (1) car ... and no kamikaze squirrels.
I think that was LT's first "Irregular" ride.
Oh, I think I still did not do the Prison Break for another year.
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IvaHawk didn't mention, but for all those that may be curious ... we waved at Bernie Madoff as we rode by the federal prison. We didn't notice Bernie waving back.
;-)
In case "sag" or "JayJay" read the above comment:
ReplyDelete"My recollection" of the date ... comes from searching my Excel log of previous rides ... not from my "incredible" memory. I do, however, recall certain moments of that ride ... ask sometime if we're on a ride together and you are bored, er, need to be bored nearly to tears.
Btw, Iva, my opinion is that the Sep-03 ride was an "Irregulars" ride. Sat, Aug-27 was washed out by Hurricane Irene. Sat, Aug-13 was an "Irregulars" ride. Aug-06 was washed out by rain from a normal cold front. Jul-30 was an "Irregulars" ride. Jul-23 was an "Irregulars" ride.
ReplyDeleteNever challenge the memory of a man with an Excel log of his rides.
;-)