Tuesday Canal Ride Report, A Grim Faced Crowd

Big news to report.  David Smith, on the left, a parent now, has ridden little and unable to defend his title of King of the Granville Climbing Challenge ride.  This ultra fun lark through the peaks and valleys north and east of Granville, is on the 25th of May and should be on your calendar of things to do.  Great prizes (kind of sort of), doughnuts at the start (may be a day or two old with a bite taken out of them), prize for first, middle and last place finishers, coveted stuffed animal for the winner (I still have to shop at K-Mart for it), challenging route, etc...  On the right, Pete Rose makes an appearance.

Nick on the left, in need of cash to support his pilgrimage to a WI race (details below).  Nick was performing wheelies in the parking lot but I was too slow or the wheelies to quick, to get a good image.  Pete Ashmore (or is that Matt), on the right.

Everyone heads to the shady spot after readying themelves for tonight's brutal route.  Katherine on the left just bought a home in Granville.  Sounds like a great location, near Wildwood Park. 

Cyclists elbowing for position to sign in or check the route.  Good turnout of around 40-42.

Remember Nathan, aka Recumbent Dude who accepted a job in San Fran and moved he and family out there?  Have not seen his brother-in-law Dane since last year but he made a surprise appearance, in the center.  Dane assures me the reason Nathan does not return phone calls and reply to emails is because he is too busy.  Now that's a new one.

Only a couple of the New Albany boys came down, Jon Morgan and Rich Lewis but that was enough to stampede many of us into the B group.  Maybe 12 rolled out with the A's while the B group had 25 and quite a few C's, including two new ones. 

After exiting the parking lot and pausing at the light, Mark C looks back to see if I am still there.  Trying to stay somewhat fresh for the New Albany punishment, I hung back and enjoyed the company of Ryan Roe on all the climbs, or whoever else would fade, which was always Ryan.  Good route tonight, although with the strong SW winds, I should have switched the direction since the first half was flat down to Amanda and then uber hilly on the return.  We finished with 43 miles and 1950' of climbing, probably 1500' of that in a 15 mile stretch that included the awesome climb on Delmont past the old pig farm, Crumley, Coonpath to Pickerington, etc...  I forgot to ask how the A group finished but got to give credit to them for always keeping a token Canal boy with them who can provide turn-by-turn directions. 

If you did not read the initial pre-ride report post of Tuesday evening, I made the mistake of inserting a line about dreaming of cyclists as I went to bed, which precipitated the first few comments you see below.