Hot, Humid New Albany Ride

Good turnout for the Tuesday, The Cycling Club group ride with a few more new cyclists, including Muscle Dude Jr,. John Day on the right.  John is a little disappointed in his performance at a couple of the many events in which he has participated this year but compared to where he was 18 years ago, battling it out in the trenches opposite 300lb offensive linemen and compared to last year when he struggled to hang with us on group rides, the guy has come a long, long way.  Looked like about 12 in the "Group" ride, kind of a C/D group and then 22 in our "B" ride. 

Doug McConaha, showing his injury from a crash at the Hyde Park crit last weekend.  Check out that splint on his finger, which fell off during the ride causing a delay.  Never have I had to yell to the group, "Wait, Doug lost his finger" to request a slow down.

Guy in sleeveless jersey was new.  Rolled up, asked if this was the Cycling Club group ride and if there was a cost.  Farmer Mike quickly sprang to action and asked for $100.  We headed out, led by Gus and Jay, east on old 161, hit Jersey Mill, rolled in to Alexandria, out Moots, got on to Hardscrabble and eventually Burg.  The good news of the day was Grand Poobah, Todd Lee, is coming back, apparently getting the upper hand on a minor health problem that has a major impact on his cardio output.  It was great to see him hang in for so long.  We reached Stone Quarry and the group largely held together but.....

...we waited at Northridge for others to catch on, including Marty Sedluk, who, after back to back weekend results maybe never duplicated by other Ohioans lagged behind.  OK, he was hanging back to help some laggards but nevertheless, we mad a big deal about waiting for him.  Dang, was it hot and humid although Peggy appears to be just fine while the rest of us wiped buckets of collective sweat from our brows.  Regrouped and headed west, the skies began to look ominous but we made it back with no rain and a 19.3 average for 38 miles.