Nov-16-2017: BB 103 Meets Triple-L

Another "back-fill" post.
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JohnP #2375, RBA South Florida, and his wife, Juliet #8986, were in town for family reasons.
They arranged to do Byron's "Leesville-Leasburg-Leesville" 205-km perm on a Thursday, and
Advertised on the local list-serve and Facebook group, or maybe only on the Facebook group,
For others to join them.

Hard for anyone with a "regular" "9 to 5" work schedule to ride all day on a Thursday.
The previous day, Bob, who is retired, mentioned that he had thought about joining the Triple-L ride,
But when he checked out the results of the two aforementioned,
Bob concluded he likely wouldn't be able to keep up.

Quite a few local randonneurs had met and ridden with John, apparently even my ex-wife.
However, I had never met him.

I concluded that although I didn't have time for a 200 km perm, and
I certainly could not have kept up with John and Juliet on their tandem,
That it would be nice if someone local could ride at least a little with them.

My workday that Thursday wouldn't start until 3 pm.
If I could finish a ride no later than 1 pm, I could intercept John and Juliet and ride together for a bit.

The "Bahama Beach" 'free-route' perm-pop was the perfect route for that purpose.
BB starts from a different location than Triple-L, but
The two routes share approximately 24.4-miles of roads near the respective starts:
Beginning approximately 2.1-miles from the BB start and 4.8-miles from the Triple-L start.

I figured that if I started at the same time as the tandem, they would catch me up
Before we reached their first control on Red Mill Rd (approx 17.5-miles into the Triple-L route).

In the event, I started about 10-minutes late, the tandem started on time, and
If all had gone well with John and Juliet, I probably never would have caught them.
However, they stopped at the bottom of the first creek valley on Victory Church Rd
To adjust their equipment, and that allowed me to catch them.

We rode together from there until their control on Red Mill Rd.
"Together" mind you includes the fact that they were on a tandem and I was not.
Anyone that has ever ridden a single rider steed with a tandem
Knows that combination is often not the best combination.

Tandems are typically faster on declines and flats.
Singles are typically faster on inclines.
However, John and Juliet were faster on all slopes, if they wanted to be.
Despite that, we were mostly together with a lot of chatting until that Red Mill control.
You certainly understand that means that the tandem backed off their pace to accommodate me.

John, Juliet and me.  Group selfie by John inside the Red Mill control gas station / convenience store. We spent more time there chatting than if we had been doing Triple-L and since that location is not a control on BB, it was certainly more time than I have ever spent there while doing Bahama Beach; maybe 15 minutes total.  On the other hand, John and Juliet may have been willing to take a couple extra minutes there to warm up.  The temperatures were colder than the cycling clothing they had brought with them from Florida.  Truth be told, my toes had gotten quite cold those first 21 miles (including the cycle commute to the BB start), and I took time to put some bread bags between my feet and socks to block additional cold wind penetrating my shoes. So, cold day for all three of us.

Leaving the Red Mill Exxon, Red Mill Rd is not too lumpy, and we managed to ride across that road more-or-less together.  The togetherness ended shortly thereafter.  I thought I might be able to catch the tandem on two of the steeper parts of Stagville Rd -- Ha!  I also thought I might be able to catch them climbing the "Michie Wall" -- but they had pulled even further ahead on the descent from Bahama to Lake Michie, and I didn't close climbing the "Wall."

I was, however, close enough when I got to Hall Road that they were able to see me waving just before and as I turned off Bahama Road to go my own way:  they waved back.

Bahama Beach 'free-route' ridden on Nov16-2017.

Thereafter, I kept a more controlled pace.
After all, as I recall, this marked the first time in all of 2017 that I had ridden consecutive days.
I could check my Excel log to verify that, but I choose not to.

I took almost no time at the only intermediate store control in Stem.
And that helped keep the elapsed time to a reasonable amount.
Given the approx 10-minute late start and the 15 or so minutes at the Red Mill Exxon,
I was happy with the 5h30 elapsed time for my ride (4h45 in-motion for the populaire).

Permanent Route Name / #	Distance	Date	Finishers	DNF
NC: Bahama Beach / 1404	103	2017/11/16	1	0

Cert#	RUSA#	Name	Club / ACP Code	Time
RUSA-T76980	6218	S__, Martin	Randonneurs USA / 933095	05:30

John and Juliet reported on Facebook that they had a mostly enjoyable ride,
Though they would have appreciated warmer temperatures.

Permanent Route Name / #	Distance	Date	Finishers	DNF
NC: Leesville-Leasburg-Leesville (L-L-L) / 831	205	2017/11/16	2	0

Cert#	RUSA#	Name	Club / ACP Code	Time
RUSA-T77200	2375	P__, John	South Florida Randonneurs / 909014	11:25
RUSA-T77201	8986	P__, Juliet	South Florida Randonneurs / 909014	11:25