Saturday Ride Report--Rick Miller's Painful Ride

We, the dew sweepers, arrived at Rick Miller's house for an awesome ride north, south, east and west.  Great scenery, great weather, a great route and a great deal of pain.  3 out of 4 isn't bad.  Among the riders were two, wearing authentic merino wool jerseys.  Set a record for most wool jersey cyclists since the 1950's in an Ohio-based group ride/

Kevin Swabb, in the background, wearing a "Seven" branded, long sleeve wool jersey having the OSU colors of scarlet and grey.  How cool is that and rare too.

Our host, Rick Miller, demonstrably making various points about cycling etiquette and telling all that drivers are friendly toward cyclists in the area so don't do stupid stuff that screws things up for him. 

We shove off, missing a late arriving Marty Sedluk & friends.  Hendra, an early arrival, hung back to wait for Marty, thus forming a "super" group behind our fun bunch of 18-20.  We rolled in to Danville, following a rolling route, at mile 25. where I thought we would stop to refuel. However, while Rick, Frank Seebode, Farmer Mike and I stopped, everyone else kept rolling, including Marty's bunch who caught and passed us.  Rick pulled me though one climb after another until we finally caught up with Greg Dubois, Joe G, Flyin Tuna, Jeff S and Kevin Swabb. 

Finally, at mile 40, we arrived in Glenmount for a stop.  Here the group split, some for the 100 mile route, others for the 77.  Immediately after leaving Glenmount on the 77 mile option, we hit the wall on Clifton Road, a climb I remember well from KCBC or maybe from the COP Gambier roving ride.  Steep and long, just the kind I try to avoid but we managed to surmount it and continued on to Bladensburg. 

During our break in B-burg, I mentioned that we were 12 miles from the end.  I based this on it being a 77 mile route and we were at 66 miles and earlier I heard Rick tell us Bladensubrg was 12 miles from his house.  Curiously, the always combative Flyin Tuna challenged me, saying we were no more than 6-7 miles from Rick's house.  I challenged her to put her money where her mouth is and bet $1. Geesh,that was too easy.
Finished with 77 miles, 6900' of climbing and a fun day on a bike with brilliant weather and scenery.

Saturday is shaping up to be a great weather day and coincidentally, there are great riding options too!  COP has a ride at 7:45am of 50 miles off Clear Creek Road and then there is the Leaf Peeper's Tour out of Nelsonville but sounds like many of the locals are headed to Utica for a Rick Miller ride with the details below from Rick.  I believe there is a broad mix of fitness at Rick's ride with Flyin Tuna making an appearance.  I heard Grand Poobah is doing the Leaf Peepers ride, along with Kenda Janet.  
 
When: Saturday
October 12th 
Time: 8:30 AM
Where: Rick millers house 18735 Utica rd Utica, oh 43080

There will be 3 route options 55   Miles 3500 ft (3:40-3:50)
77   Miles 5300 ft (4:45-5:00) 
101 Miles 8500 ft (6:50-7:20)
will have maps for each ride also
 All three share the first 25 miles option two and three share the first 39 miles
 
Plenty of food stops along the way, make sure you bring some cash!
 All are welcome, pass along to your riding buddies.
 Here are the GPS routes to download
 55 mile routehttp://ridewithgps.com/routes/3489656
77 mile routehttp://ridewithgps.com/routes/3489608
101 mile routehttp://ridewithgps.com/routes/3489787
If any questions please email me or call me.(614)266-8822