2008. Dec-27.
The first Irregulars Holiday Range Road Rover was just a ride by LT and me.
The first time either of us rode the entire length of Range Road.
And we did ride the entire length of Range Road that first time.
Dave and I enjoyed the ride.
No photos. No blog post.
2009. Dec-24. A Holiday Tradition?
The second Irregulars Holiday Range Road Rover.
We rode what would become the regular, er, Irregular RRR route.
Turning off Range Road onto Little Mountain Road to get to Stem.
That may have been the first time I cycled across Little Mountain Rd.
4 riders: LT, RedRocket, IvaHawk, me.
See the blog post, with its iconic photo.
2010. Dec-24.
The third annual Irregulars Holiday RRR.
7 riders: LT, RedRocket, IvaHawk, Ricochet, Levi, Gary, me.
I coordinated a little pre-ride fun at Levi's expense.
See the blog post for Levi's torment.
2011. Dec-24.
Fourth annual IR Holiday RRR.
8 riders for the full RRR: LT, RedRocket, IvaHawk, Ricochet, Shane, BobH, Norris, me.
2 riders took the Robert's Chapel Rd cut-off: Mallet, Tito.
Blog post.
2012. Date unknown.
My recollection is that there was an Irregulars Holiday RRR.
I recall that one of the other Irregulars put out the rider-call.
I also recall that the start time was rather later than usual,
And that I got busy and forgot about the ride until too late.
These things happen.
Too bad, really, because I was in excellent cycling shape at the end of 2012.
2013. Dec-31.
We rescued the tradition on the 31st.
7 riders: LT, RedRocket, IvaHawk, Ricochet, Tito, BobS, me.
I would have sworn that we took a photo in 2013 at the same location as the 2009 pic.
However, there is no photo on the blog post.
Maybe the photo(s) was(were) too blurry.
[I also would have sworn that we took a photo in 2010 or 2011. Oh, well.]
2014.
I think there was no Irregulars Holiday Range Road Rover ride.
Maybe there was, but I didn't do any bicycle riding in December 2014.
2015. Dec-26.
11 riders: LT, RedRocket, IvaHawk, Snapper, Mallet + son, Ags, Shane, newFrank, Gene, me.
We took a couple photos at the iconic photo location.
One was apparently too blurry to bother with -- never got emailed to me.
The other photo, well, here it is:
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| More road and trees than riders. I've mentioned this to the photographer, whom I won't identify. I do NOT understand why anyone bothers to take a group photo if the photographer doesn't get close enough to the people to actually see them. Oh, well, these things happen. [Also, I'm not entirely convinced that this was taken at the same location as the iconic 2009 photo, despite that fact that I was adamant at the time that this was the correct location. Sigh.] |
2016. Dec-28.
Finally, something about the ride that this is supposed to be about.
4 riders: LT, Snapper, rando buddy BobB, me.
This was apparently the first Holiday RRR appearance for Snapper.
How did that happen?
Also the first Holiday RRR appearance for BobB.
But that makes sense.
BobB has joined a few Irregular rides, even one Range Road Rover,
But not previously on the Holiday ride.
Why always Range Road for the Holiday ride?
Well, it has become a tradition.
But how did it become tradition?
Well, see above, and also, Range Road loops back on itself,
Going nowhere except "circling" the National Guard training ground.
Essentially 24 miles with almost no traffic.
That last is the reason we enjoy Range Road.
It allows easy conversation with no worries about traffic.
One drawback, though,
The surface of the Person County portion of Range Road is getting quite crappy.
The Durham and Granville County sections are smooooth.
I couldn't climb with the others.
Typical.
But worse than usual.
I'm just not in good cycling shape.
I did, however, make a hot-interval effort in Person County.
Going faster makes the crappy road surface feel not quite as bad.
Or at least gets it over with sooner.
I don't recall Snapper making any special effort on any section of the ride.
Evidence of intelligence?
Lt. Dave was strong on every climb.
He decided to make a special effort on the last 1.5-miles of Old Weaver Trail up to New Light Rd.
Bob decided to go with him.
And Dave's special effort section turned into Bob's special effort section.
Bob says he can tell that he no longer has the in-shape-ness that he had in mid-August,
But I cannot tell that he's lost anything.
Snapper had attended the recent NCBC meeting where rando Sridhar
Had made a presentation on the PacTour Northern Tour that he and Bob had done.
Harvey didn't know that Bob had also done that ride,
Until I let the cat out of the bag.
Harvey asked Bob quite a few questions about the ride.
That's about the extent of the conversation items that I can recall.
Anyone that has read my blog posts knows that I almost never recall road conversations.
That is my story and I'm sticking to it.
It was a great day for a bike ride.
Warm for late December, sunny, and a slight NW breeze.
Oh, and we took a couple photos.
I prefer the other one, but I'm publishing the selfie.
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| Left to right: me, BobB, Lt. Dave, Snapper, aka, Harvey. [It looks as if I'm photo-bombing; my recollection is that Bob's bike was blocking me, so I had to lean in.] |
As far as the photo location: There are at least two and probably three sections that closely resemble one another. And, I don't know which is which. I've ridden by one and said that's where we took the snow photo. Then a few miles later, I said no, I think THAT's where we took the snow photo.
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