Mark's Cycling & Hiking Blog
  • Home
  • Mark's Cycling Blog
  • Contact Us
  • Boulder Canyon Posts
  • Cycling Event Meet-Ups
  • Home
  • Mark's Cycling Blog
  • Contact Us
  • Boulder Canyon Posts
  • Cycling Event Meet-Ups

Thursday in New Albany

7/8/2010

4 Comments

 
Picture
Hot, hot, hot and humid for the early arrivals in the New Albany Thursday ride but then, a couple of high clouds moved in and then more and soon, at the start there was a nice blockage of the sun that kept the worst of the heat at bay.  Shown here is Gary, recovering nicely from his crash while buzzing down Rocky Road last Saturday.  However, there is some questions about whether the brain is back to normal since he arrived before 5:00pm and wondered why no one was showing up for the ride. Seems he unintentionally left work an hour early, arriving at the parking lot an hour early......

Picture
Steve O rode up to make sure his financial interests were protected and serving as my CFO for post ride money donations to Paul Stock's Pelotonia effort (more on that below).  I had hoped the big guns would turn out to show Steve the speed/effort of New Albany rides is overall stronger than the Canal rides but the turnout was not what I had hoped.  Still, we had Terry, a rare visit from Tim Tyler, Mick, Walker dude, Jeff S, Dennis, Muscle Dude (shown below) Colnago Ron, Savage Hill Rick, probably 16-18 A's rolled out of the parking lot from a total of 60 at the start.  More new people keep showing up too, which is great.  Not there were Billy Campbell, Red Head Bill and his posse of killers, Marty, Claude, John Morgan and some of the usual stronger A's.

Picture
An accident at old 161 and Kitzmiller forced a slight detour out Walton's Parkway before getting back onto old 161.  Jeff came up with a flatter and shorter route because of the heat, which produced some grumbling but it was the right thing to do.  The pace picked up dramatically out 161 and I was not long for this world if that kept up but when we reached Babbitt to make a right, the front 80% of the group kept going straight while Jeff, Steve, Dennis, a guy who kept asking if this was the fast B group, me and two others turned.  We thought the disgruntled A rider had organized an alternative route so we kept going on the route, working our way over to Mink and then the rough stretch on Cable and in the process, dropping the guy who was looking for the fast B group. However, towards the end of Cable, the lost A's streamed by and we jumped on and headed out Headleys.  In this stretch, the group went to single file and my legs felt very fatigued for some reason and I began making plans for bailing out when we reached the up hill sections on Patterson except then my legs felt fine, weird.  I was in good shape out Patterson and then right on 161 and even down my all time favorite road, Jersey Mill, I was ok.  After reaching Alexandria we headed up Northridge where at times, Mick would take a dig, Steve took one, maybe Terry did too but I was in good shape and even rode around Steve while staring at him on the final ramp up to Concorde.   

By now, our group was down to 7-9 people as we went south on Castle, out Duncan Plains, 310 and then the multiple ramps on Miller.  Here too I was ok and we clearly benefited from Terry being under the weather and not making any attacks.  Each time someone did dart out of the pack, the combination of a slight head wind and hill quickly evaporated momentum and we always settled back in before finally reaching Beech and then in with 38 miles and a 22.1 average.  Soon, the next group came in with Dan, Cindy, Katherine, Tri-Mike and a large following and they had a 20.6 average I think.

Picture
I quickly set out the cooler with ice, beer and soft drinks and people were very generous with their donations.  The Asahi Dry was a hit and I want to apologize for having held 2 of them back for selfish reasons. Probably should have had more soft drinks and even diet was requested. I'll probably bring the left over drinks and supplement it with more soft drinks for the end of the Gambier ride on Saturday. Steve O really wants to match my collection, which stands at $32, with $100 so I have a ways to go. 

Picture
Some drank more heavily than others, including this odd mix of Moutain Dew washed down with Bud Lite.  Even Dan, in the background, did a double take over this public display.

4 Comments
Cindy
7/8/2010 08:03:42 pm

Guess this explains a lot about the way I ride.....

Reply
Recumbent Dude (Nathan) link
7/9/2010 12:27:53 am

So that's your secret!!!

Next ride I'll have to mix coca-cola and michelob light in my water bottles.

Excellent... Front of the Peleton, here I come!!

---

Reply
your not so lucky friends in canal
7/9/2010 09:13:39 am

So, this is what we get... Nothin, after all the years of leading you home, you take the beer to the high brows in NA. Nice. You'll pay....

Reply
Mark
7/9/2010 09:58:30 am

This is a very good point and I really should show my gratitude by bringing beer and giving it away without donation required for that special group of people at Canal. I am giving careful consideration to this.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Mark is a long-time cyclist, hiker, golfer and plays some table tennis...ok, it's ping pong.

    Categories

    All
    April
    California Riding
    Grand Canyon Backpacking
    March
    The Characters

    Archives

    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.