Saturday Out of Canal and Sunday Too!

Good turnout for a mid November ride.  Rumors swirled that Woody, fresh off his big win at the Granville CC, was going to make a showing but it was not to be.  Instead, we had the legendary Todd Lee, Steve O, Jeff S, Flyin Tuna, Kevin K (shown in image), Kevin H., Dennis, Ginger, Amanda, Dentist Brad, Scott, Mitch the Engineer, Ryan R, Kenda Janet, Kenda Paul, Ned, Franz, Tim F, etc...

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Kevin H made a rare appearnce.  I had inquired about him many times in the last few weeks and must admit, the adjective "portly" had been used to describe his condition but I could not comprehend how vastly his physique had changed. Kevin says he is going to lose 10 pounds this winter but it appeared that would only be a good start to what needed done.  Oh well.

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Ryan Roe showed up sporting a full beard and talking about becoming a Civil War re-enactor.  He certainly looked the part, save for the lack of guant cheeks and protruding ribs and so I looked through dozens of images of generals from the Civil War and found one that is a dead ringer for Ryan's new look.

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Bob Allan gave us final instructions and we shoved off at a leisurely pace until hitting Slough, which broke things up a little but the long ride out Winchester, into Carroll got a good group together. A turn onto Plum and that long hill split things again but I noted Ginger, in the midst of racing cycle cross, was with us as our group of 6 crested the hill and coasted down to Havensport and then a quick jog onto Coonpath before turning onto Rainbow.  I had to bug out at that point to take off a jacket, put arm warmers on and change gloves.  The sun was warming the air and the day was turning into a spectacular day for riding.  I waited for the next group to arrive and soon Amanda, Brad, Scott and another guy came by and I jumped on for a leisurely ride all the way to Rushville and a very nice stop at the Rushville Coffee Shop.  I had not been there before but the location, service and food selection was great (note, they aren’t open on Sundays).  

We made a right out of the coffee shop and coasted down that nice hill, braking for a turn onto Gun Barrel.  A few of us took advantage of a hill there to put a gap into those who wanted to ride at an off-season pace and we had a smallish group turning left on Pleasantville and eventually onto Leonard, Bader and then Basil Western.  The pace was fairly intense and our group had been whittled down to Steve, Dennis, Ginger, Ryan, Todd and Jeff S.  With wind out of the southwest, the wily veteran Todd kept me working hard, keeping his bike on the 4’ of asphalt to the right of the white line so I was unable to draft, even when he took his turn at the front.  Dude, don’t do that to a fellow wily veteran!  We cruised back to Cyclist Connection with 55 miles.

I returned to Canal Winchester for the Sunday ride and I suspect Roy will have a good description on his blog of his experience taking on Amanda as a stoker on his tandem.  While we were riding south on Cedar Hill I noted it appeared Amanda’s calves were neither tightening on the upstroke or down stroke but I don’t know if that means anything, necessarily.  Unfortunately, a broken cog ended their expedition at Canal and after Mark R arranged for his wife to pick them up, we continued and I ended up with 40 shortcutting miles.