Kendaite Tsunami at the MOC Century Ride

As expected, after Saturday's sleet/rain/cold the turn out for the MOC ride was good, including probably every wearer of Kenda garb who lives within 50 miles of central Ohio.  There was Mario, CT, Kendas Dave, Paul & Janet and others.  So many Kendas I can't remember them all and they all look the same to me anyway. 
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Poobah checks out a new Colnago with Di2 group.

We gathered at the entrance, including Dan in the center who, by not using Kenda brand tires, had two flats today to add to others on recent rides. May be time to change tire brand. 18 of us, including Steve O, Nathan, Poobah, the aforementioned Kendas, Arron, Mark & Karen Rossi, Flyin Tuna, Jeff S, Kevin K & others.....

....rolled onto the streets of Delaware.  Poobah was concerned about the wind direction, noting it would be in our face on the way back.  Of course, considering where he would be in our group at that point, it's like simultaneously worrying about the weather in Barrow, Alaska.  It's just not relevant.

After awhile, the speed ramped up, the group got stretched out and a lead group of 5 of us arrived in maybe Darby or something like that for a food stop at the local school.  Soon, everyone else joined us in the gym for PB&J sandwiches, bananas, drink & Doritos.  While this was a good mix, a couple of us left the school needing a Mt Dew or Monster fix so we planned to stop in a store as soon as possible.  Immediately upon leaving the store, the route splits appeared and the weak took the short cuts and the strong (Steve, Nathan, Aaron, Jeff, Dan, me & Poobah) took the 100 mile route.  The split occurred so quickly, I did not have time to hurl the usual insults.

Nice route, eventually taking us to North Lewisburg where we ran into a large group of people who were on the 88 or 91 mile routes, including Denver Dan, Frans, Jimmy, etc...  There were two Jimmys seen on our route today.  There was the Jimmy at the rest stop and there was the Jimmy in our group.  You didn't note me mentioning a guy by the name Jimmy in our group?  We all know him as Aaron but Nathan called him "Jimmy" for the first 57 miles until we set him straight. Because my riding distances have been so light the last 3-4 weeks, I expected the last 70 miles of this ride would be brutal but I was still in good shape at this point, mile 57 while Nathan takes a quick nap to recover and Aaron was looking around for that group that took the early split.  

Head and cross winds began to take their toll after leaving North Lewisburg but we kept plugging along with Steve O taking over whenever he noticed one of us flagging at the front, which was frequently.  The only downside to that was he couldn't help but pull away from us, which left whoever was 2nd in line, first in line and pulling again.  Eventually, Steve gave up on us and rode away with about 5 miles to go.  Couldn't blame him, like Tiger Woods forced to play  golf with a bunch of 15 handicappers, it gets old watching guys look for their golf balls in the woods all day.  We finished with 101 miles, a 19.5 mph average and 2500' of climbing.
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