I Offered Her My Wheel but....

Quite a small turnout for a brief window of unusual 90+ temperature and less than an 1 1/2 hour of daylight.  Jeff S, responded with an interesting route of 29 miles (hey, someone buy a card and have everyone sign it next week and give it to this great ride leader).  The usual levity prevailed with most taking the opportunity to poke fun at.....

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.....Flyin Tuna who claimed she has a new set of "women's wheels" on order.  This prompted disbelief among us as we speculated what could possible differentiate a standard light weight wheel set for a "women's wheel set).  Some guessed color, thinking the wheels would be pink with floral pattern but Cindy says no, cosmetics were the same.  Someone said the rubber would be softer but that is the tire and not the wheel so that isn't it.  SuperDave guessed it was lighter weight but are not "men's wheels" already as light as they can be, given material choices?  Most of us think the retailer saw this rube coming a mile away and is getting away with charging a premium for "women's wheels".  Someone else suggested Cindy check the weight load maximum on the new wheels but not sure what they meant by that.

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Billy C's riding buddy was there but no Billy, who was giving a guitar lesson.

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The A group comprised of Muscle Dude, Dave Chesrown, Mick, Claude and a few others but not a big group.  The real fun was in the "Fast B" group of Dennis, Ted M, Dan, Mark R, Mark V, Amanda, Cindy, Jeff S, SuperDave, Trek/Echelon guy and others totaling about 17. At the start, I begged Ted not to destroy us and he was nice and complied.  We rolled out Jug, turning north on Clover Valley and worked our way over to Green Chapel and Duncan Plains.  The pace was very moderate with Ted behaving, Jeff S recovering from Tuesday and the rest of us glad to just settle in.  We went left at Castle and then right on Sadie Thomas that has some rollers and where the pace picked up and a few people were dropped.  A right on Northridge brought us into Alexandria with some more defections, before heading out Jersey Mill and that long uphill stretch. 

The pace was slowly building yet after a right on Burnside and a left on Jug, Cindy and Amanda were still with us.   I began to worry because if Amanda finished with us, she'll post on Facebook something like, "I kicked butt tonight and Mark W was barely hanging on and that Dennis, how did he hang on for so long????"  At one point, both females actually took a pull and someone shouted, "Put some men at the front!" Dan came alongside me and wondered if he should take off.  Soon, someone launched, maybe Dan or Ted M but in any case, Dennis jumped on and I, directly behind the Big Diesel (Jeff S), assumed I would be in good shape by sticking there....except.....Big Diesel faded rather rapidly and the front three had too large a gap for me to cover so I began daydreaming while finishing out the ride in Jeff's slipstream when suddenly and completely unexpectedly, in fact, shockingly, Amanda sprinted around us.  I was embarrassed for Jeff and yet, still no response from him, so I took off, caught Amanda and pulled away.  Eventually, Dennis, Ted, Dan and I regrouped with Trek/Echelon and a couple others and arrived at the parking lot with a 21.8mph average.

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Amanda arrived and informed us that Mark R had stopped out on Jug to repair a flat.  Amanda also happened to mention on the run out Jug, Flyin Tuna had slipped back and Amanda told us, "I offered her my wheel but all I heard was a gurgling sound of struggle" at least, I think that's what she said.  Oh geez, when the crowd of Dan, Dennis, Ted and I heard this, we could not wait to see Tuna and apply the appropriate verbal jabs to the ribs. This was too rich.  Cindy had stopped with Mark so it took awhile but above, Amanda keeps watch to alert us when Cindy approaches so we can begin our verbal assault.  Oh, the A group finished with a 21.9 average not a super fast pace for them.  Looks like KCBC is the ride of choice for most with an 8:00am roll-out.

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