Canal Winchester: George annoys, George Falls, George Faints, George OK

A major accident on #33 had traffic backed up for miles and undoubtedly contributed to an unusually low turnout for a glorious late afternoon.  Retro George made his first appearance at Canal for the season.  The route was unusually flat for a Canal ride and a large group went with the A's and stayed together for a long time.  TOSRV fatigue was clearly an issue with some and people began to peal off with Group Killer, The Boss (who earlier in the day had run 8 miles) and Mitch Tallen taking most of the pulls. Of course the problem with this set-up is with 3 strong riders doing most of the rotation at the front, the pace was always high and seldom was there a let-up for small recovery periods.  We rolled into Baltimore and by then George had used the only line from his vast repertoire on me about 30 times, "I can't believe you're still here."  Please, someone come up with another one-liner that he can plug in there to relieve the monotony. We rolled into Baltimore with a 22.6mph avg.

George kept dropping back on the smallest hill but would come roaring back every time, unreal.  Soon we reached Lockville Road and the S curve prior to making a right-hand turn onto that short feeder road that links us to Pickerington Road. Someone yelled gravel and I slowed and inexplicably, turned into the church parking lot instead of the road.  Fortunately, Todd Lee saw this and get this, yelled, "Hold up a second guys".  What a classy guy!  Upon reeaching Pickerington Road, Todd and I took an alternate route back to Canal while Craig,Jamie, Savage Hill guy, Steve and George headed toward Slough.  Reaching the parking lot with a 22.4 average I took off to watch the final episode of Biggest Loser, a series I thoroughly enjoy.

Anyway, Jamie called me later to tell me the following.  After most had cleared out of the parking lot, Geroge was by Jamie's car and he clipped in and started to ride off but turned to say something and with the turning of his head so too did his front wheel and he fell.  George bounced up quickly, was unsteady, Jamie observed George's eyes roll up into his forehead and then pass out, falling again.  He recovered quickly and laughed it off and took off.  It appears by jumping up too quickly after the first fall, that led to the fainting episode.