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

At the Beginning it Was Like a Normal End of Ride

7/21/2011

0 Comments

 
Picture
You know how flushed and sweaty everyone is at the end of a hard ride, that's kind of how everyone looked at the start of Thursday's ride with a temperature at 96-97 and some humidity in the air too.  The parking lot was practically vacant until around 5:40 people began arriving and as I sat in the shade I told Jeff S, "I'll join the first person who suggests we pack it in and head to the Rusty Bucket to drink beer".  Alas, no one suggested that, just a bunch of grim faced cyclists looking at a sensibly modest route.

Picture
So, extreme heat, at least by Ohio standards, cut into the turnout and the only person who fully embraced the "Pink Out" was the man (or maybe transgender) himself, Dennis.  He had the pink tires, pink accented bike, black jersey and shorts with pink accent and attached this Barbie with a pink tu-tu to his bike. What more can or should be said about this guy? 

Picture
A quick count revealed around 30-35.  I heard some rumblings about taking it easy tonight so when Jeff called out the A group, I slipped in, turned the corner and "Oh No!, there was a major pack of wolves I had missed and these guys were not the "takin it easy" types even if the temp had been 150. So, now we were at around 40-45 cyclists and 18 or so in the A group with Marty, Dave C, Chris G, Pete C, Terry, Jon Morgan (back from a nice vaca in the south of France), Doug Lucas, Nate, Dennis, Savage Hill Rick, Doug McConaha, Christian, Rob Rhodes, etc...   

We got on to Jug and the pace picked up fairly high, made the jog on Mink and then continued on Jug, cruising into Alexandria at 25mph avg, slowed a bit and exited the village at a measly 24.6.  The pace out a newly paved Raccoon Valley rode was reasonable as the climb up Hardscrabble was likely on everyone's mind.  I had already planed to bug out at the Hardscrabble turn, again not wanting to find out how hot I could get when I already was boiling.  We made the turn, I sat up and so too did Doug M, stating what I had been thinking.  We rode up together and found Dennis at the top waiting along with Rick.  Meanwhile, a strong effort had been put in and Marty, Doug L, Pete C and Jon M reached the top as a first group and then worked together to stay out front the rest of the way in.  I hear Chris G swerved into the berm to avoid a rock and was able to do some cyclocross on the way up.  

While Marty & group stayed on the route, which crossed Northridge to Concorde before turning south on Castle to Duncan Plains and in, those behind turned south on Northridge and many followed.  Ended with 36 miles and about 1000' of climbing.  Lead group finished with an average around 22.5 (my usually trusty source forgot to turn on his computer so he was estimating).  Plans for Saturday are mixed.  Rolling Thunder ride out of Gambier with a 9:00am start, riding from Granville to catch the RT ride at 7:00 or Mark Clingan is leading a group out of his church on Coonpath at 7:00am.

0 Comments



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 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.