Saturday Ride Report--Stern Winds from the Northeast

And here we are at another new bike moment.  This time Cindy, aka "Flyin Tuna", pulls a new Project One bike from the trunk.  Some are already calling it the "Tuna Boat" but she is way too fast for that title to stick.

Observers "oooohh" and "awwwe" at the new machine, Erik, Farmer Mike, Jeff & Steve.

Rudy on the right, gathers with 30-31 of us on a beautiful Saturday morning.

Thus the journey begins, out 161 and then.....

....Smith's Mill then a right on Jug....big mistake by me when creating the route. Some of Jug has had sections repaved but toward Mink Road, geesh a disaster as first on and then almost simultaneously, a 2nd flat occurred.  Sorry about that!

This is what a CO2 cartridge looks like after Cindy malfunctioned the attachment and all the gas escaped into the atmosphere rather than into the tube.  Now it was down to the manual pump and questionable arm strength but I managed to get more than 20psi pressure into the tube and she was good to go, as was Jon & Shari Hastings who were also flat fixing just ahead of us.  We pooled both groups and then Jon, Shari, Andrew C, Farmer Mike Cindy & me got back on route.  It did not take long for Jon to rip my legs off and I had to spit the bit.  Andrew & Cindy took pity on me and held back so the three of us worked together all the way too....

.....Utica.  Actually, we caught some of the group just before the Reynolds climb but most were already snacking, including.....

....Marty, showing off the proper chomping action with a sandwich.

Luke R arrived at the ride without his cycling shoes but it just did not matter.  He rode with what appeared to be no difficulty in running shoes. Note the stylish combo of socks and shoes.

We exited Utica and passed the famous chocolate wheel, hard at work.  We hit the St Joseph climb where near the top, I could barely turn the crank arm, then later the Chatham Road climb and eventually....

....arrived in Granville.  So far, the pace had been a reasonable B pace with hard effort on the hills but once we got onto old 161, the guy in running shoes went to the front and rode alongside Marty. As we approached the light on 310, I willed it to turn red so I could gather my breath, wits and little remaining strength.  I set all kinds of PR on every Strava segment between Alexandria and New Albany, including being 9th out of 1562 cyclists on one segment....ain't drafting grand!?!?!  Finished with 68 miles and an 18.7 avg.  Lot of fun with a great group of people.