Tuesday Canal Ride Report by ink stained wretch

I was unable to make it to Canal on Tuesday.  Well, actually I was able but the cool weather opened up an opportunity to do something else so I called Corvair at work to see if she could come up with a ride report.  The phone call went like this: Corvair: "Hello, Amanda Speaking." Me: "Is this Amanda Orr?" Corvair: "Yes it is." Me: "Amanda Orr, one of the greatest female cyclists in central Ohio?" Corvair: "Why yes. Who is this?" Anyway, she agreed to provide the report and then Steve O and Andrew C provided images so here we go:

The weather was questionable as I arrived in Canal with cue sheets sans maps. The map was printing huge, and I couldn't change it. The forecast called for a high of 66 and clouds. Everyone I talked to said they enjoyed the route, even though it was somewhat hilly. A low turnout of A riders, with a large group of B riders and Eve and a few others were there.  I decided to ride with the Rossi tandem as I was still recovering from a hard 200km ride on Saturday and my lingering head cold. Several of us had arm warmers on, and Nate made fun of me for mine. He's like, "It's not that cold". Well, I was happy I had them towards the end of the ride as it was only around 60 degrees!

The Rossis decided to go out with the small group of A riders, which included Schleup, Ryan and Nate. The Rossis said they had to climb up Slough, so I can understand them leaving early. Poobah must have decided to stay home to avoid what little rain the forecast called for, although we did not get rained on at all. We even saw a nice sunset in the foreground on the way back to Canal.  I decided to head out with them, and left the B group to their own admissions. It was nice to see Donn there and Dave Staats, who just two weeks ago bruised his wrist. He has seemed fine ever since. Well of course the A group kicked it up on the S-curve before Slough, and the Rossis and I promptly got dropped. We then got lapped by the rest of the As on Slough and thought there were B riders back, but did not see any. I rode most of the route with them, sometimes lagging. We had a headwind on the way back, which made things seem chilly. I noticed Ryan riding with the As again, although he says he got dropped later on!

The route was nice, and we headed down Shaw (which is not marked until it dead-ends into Westfall) and through the woods to Amanda Northern. After that we turned right on Cedar hill and it was nice to enjoy the downhill. I noticed when we turned on Marcy there was a group of 4 riders headed up to us. They reached us mid-Cedar Hill and hey, it was 4 As! Nate, Schleup, and two others I'll call "Rose parade jersey guy" and "Team Echelon guy" brought the pace up to 30 mph, rolling through the downhills of Cedar Hill into Lithopolis. Each one of them took sprints, and I just hung onto the tandem for dear life. That put my average up from 17.4 mph to 18.4 ending, on the 37 mile route. Hopefully we will come up with some newer longer routes we can do in June and July, as it is getting dark at 9pm now.

Steve O continues the tradition of handing out gifts to the winner of the Canal sign sprint, this time Billy Campbell.  The big gifts are coming, including Titleist ProV golf balls!!!!!
.