Thursday New Albany Report--It Did Not Rain Cats & Dogs

At 4:00pm, with a red/yellow spear of moisture headed directly at New Albany, I decided not to attend the ride.  A check with Dirty confirmed he had quit the idea of riding.  The I checked future radar and it showed the spear breaking up at the tip and sliding south so at 4:45 I began the journey while checking in with Rick Miller who said he would wait until 5:00pm to make the official call on the ride.  I reach the parking lot and not many cyclists milling around.

Those that are there are staring at the screen of their smart phones.  Interpretations range from we're going to get hit to we're going to stay dry between a northern line and a southern line of storms.  I'm not superstitious although my monthly visit with my palm reader is coming next week but it made sense that since I did not ride last Thursday and would have stayed dry so if I ride this week, under similar circumstances, I'll get soaked. That's how it works, right?

A few more arrive, including Chase and then....

...seldom visiting Tym Tyler rolls in, reporting that he rode through rain coming out of Granville.

A formidable group gathers, including Patrick, on the right who has tried to make each of the last three Thursdays but has been hung up with traffic.

Then Ken Buddell strolls over to the group carrying his dog.  I took this as an omen.  It would be raining cats and dogs in a few minutes.

Check out that sky as at 5:55pm, final radar checking takes place.  Hmmmm, our ride leader has not yet arrived.  When I spoke to him at about 5:15 he was in Johnstown so I called and he was hung up there and not going to make it to us.  I announced this would be an unofficial COP ride, set up the groups and around 25-30 of us....

....departed the parking lot.  Grey skies to the south, to the north well, in all directions, some more threatening then others.  About one mile into the ride, it began raining, medium strength.  I began thinking how it would suck to ride 46 miles soaked.  I am in hyper burnout mode and a hang nail is enough to cause me to quit a ride.  Thus, I turned around.  Well, the various groups made it.  The Riveters with a 22mph avg, the A group with 20mph avg.  Well, three is almost always tomorrow or the weekend.  Several ride options for Saturday, some more appealing then others.  More on that later.

Will tonight be the long awaited return of our leader, Rick Miller?  Oh joy. We get to climb Jones Road.
Route A/B 46 mile ride file https://ridewithgps.com/routes/15090825
Route C 36 mile ride file  https://ridewithgps.com/routes/15090897