Hot but Good Ridin in Knox County

Have you ever been invited to a gathering about a week after a big event like Thanksgiving, sit down and been served turkey and related food and suspected what you were really being served were week old leftovers?  Happens to me all the time.  No real reason to bring this up other than I was reminded by it Saturday.  Bruce Rogers hosted the "Rolling Thunder" ride out of Gambier while promising it would be an epic experience.  Bruce was nice enough to send me the route and I forwarded it to a few people.  Subsequently, I was sent comments suggesting, "Hey, what's up with this?  It's nothing more then the KCBC route in reverse."  I was shocked.  It would be similar to if I took Mitch O's "Rocky Ride", reversed the direction and renamed it "Bumpy Butt Tour".    Purely out of concern for maintaining integrity of central Ohio cycling, I asked Bruce about this and his reply was this: Thank you for bringing this matter to light.

As a result of rigorous analysis and comparison of the two bike routes in question (using non-scientific methods), it has now been determined that the Knox route bears every indication of having imitated the “Rolling thunder” route, albeit with several significant modifications.

Please be advised that the proper authorities will be notified. Again, thanks for your vigilance and dedication.

Nevertheless and despite the sense the wool was being pulled over our eyes, we made the long drive to Gambier for a 9:00am start on a hot and somewhat humid day.  We departed via the Kokosing Bike Trail but not before Poobah surveyed the parking lot and.....

....found one willing woman to allow a kiss on the cheek for the camera.  Flyin T was was more than willing, more like eager to participate while....

....Amy was much less so, later overheard talking to her attorney about assault charges being filed.  The good news is Poobah is off to Florida for a week, sans bike he says, to spend time at the beach.  He's promised to send me some images.

If you tire of riding the same roads, you would have liked this ride.  There were some late arrivals that missed the roll out but around 22 of us reached Howard and got onto regular roads including Marty S, Randy Brown, Poobah, Kendas Janet, Paul & Dave, Bruce, Cindy B, Brad the Dentist, Canal Susan, Scott, Suzanne B, Eric, Andrew C, Kevin K, Amy, Fred, Mark V and a few others I did not recognize.    Marty took one for the team, riding at a pace to keep most of us in the game until we hit a longish hill on 514 and then he pulled Randy, Eric and I the remaining miles into Glenmont where I showed my appreciation by taking the uncontested sign sprint. 

This was at mile 25 and we enjoyed lounging in front of the market.  I told Marty what a class act he was to pull for 25 miles but he admitted at some point he'd have to start pedaling with both legs and maybe wouldn't be around much longer, which was understandable.  Leaving Glenmont, we started up the climb on 206 where Marty took the KOM points after spotting those in front a sizable head start.  Randy confided to me that Marty had been first up and I asked him if he knew Marty.  Saying he did not I filled him in.  Last I saw of Marty, he was way ahead and Randy was hanging in there but not sure for how long.

We reached 215 and the 100 mile cutoff.  The group was spread out for miles so not sure what most people did but Cindy and Kevin took the long route intending to cut down Rt.60 and finish with 80 miles, while I rode with Janet, Andrew and Paul all the way down to 541, passing the baseball field with a game in progress.  We eventually rolled into Bladensburg but ignored the temptation of pancakes, refueled at the gas station and headed back to Gambier.  I took a different route to add some miles and finished with 71.  Great views and good roads.  Think I had around 4200' of climbing.  On Sunday, I pioneered a new route to and from Zanesville that included the Vickers Hill climb out of Frazysburg.  Could be a good roving ride route in the future.