Thursday New Albany!

Remember the days when the we rode routes of 40 +/- miles, heading frequently out old 161, then jumping on Jersey Mill into Alexandria, R Valley Road into Granvillle then coming back a few different ways and we'd be happy?  Well, there is a new sheriff in town (Shannon) and I hope he sticks with this ride leader thing because each week there seems to be a new and more interesting route that takes us on roads we have not previously ridden.  OK, some can say the roads are too busy like Mink and Morse but I have not seen any uptick in traffic on these roads as compared to others we normally rode before,  GREAT JOB and keep it coming!  Some of us think the routes will top 60 freakin miles prior to Summer Solstice.  Some speculate we'll do a century ride at the rate the distances keep spiking upwards.  

The crushing demand of preparing for the Granville Climbing Challenge, working with the highway patrol, sheriff department, Granville police, air force, selecting road paint color, marking the route, conducting the GCC pageant, finding a suitable gown for the queen to wear, recruiting podium girls, making map copies, mixing the dough for the doughnuts (hey, why is "dough" produced "doe" while "rough" is pronounced "ruff" should it not be pronounced "roe"?), checking the forecast, arranging to bring in Italian climbing specialists for the event, etc... too much work to prepare the normal Thursday New Albany ride report so....
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....will keep it simple.  First, Mark V finally got to ride his new machine.  I told him replacing his previous clunker with the shock absorber on the back would make him twice as fast.  Tonight he proclaimed I was correct.  He blows up twice as fast.  Now....about that cycling outfit.

Maybe 60 at the start and the usual mix of A's with 23 departing the parking lot.....

Dennis, good guy with best match of cycling clothing to car color.  Dennis is a new father so he's not been on the bike as much.  He sent me a pic of his son in cycling clothing that previously was worn by Nick.  Will post later.

Good group of B's and Super B's too.  So, we rode out 161, hung a right at Harrison, left at Morse and cruised through Jersey and then things really picked up.  Had a gap open in front of Ron or Mick and I could not cover so that was that.  Rode into Granville with Ron, up Thresher, out New Burg and at the 50 mile turn-off at Dry Creek, Ron took it while I stayed on the 45 mile route.  Eventually, the super B group led by a guy in a Magco jersey, with Mick, Farmer Mike, Dennis, other Dennis, Poobah, Nathan, Peggy, both Sada's, John, Mark V, maybe 15 in all caught me and I jumped in.  A fairly blistering pace west on Sportsman Club reduced the group a bit, then south on Castle, Duncan Plains, Caswell, right on Miller and eventually in with 45 miles and a 21mph avg. 

Front group of Marty, Shannon, Dave C, John Morgan adn Rich Lewis arrived with a 22.4 avg and 50 miles.  There was talk in the parking lot of even more creative routes coming, longer and hillier. 
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