Tuesday Men Lookin for "Fast" Thursday Women

Some of us have been curious as to why Steve O is making the long and arduous drive north, each Thursday, to ride with us out of New Albany.  This evening, he showed up with his hybrid and tennis shoes, rather than road bike and cycling shoes.  This prompted Dennis to speculate that Steve wanted to ride with the Thursday ladies and yet still get in a decent workout pushing that extra weight and rolling resistance.  Thus began a debate among Dennis, Cindy & others as to what the appropriate title for the blog should be.  It began as "Tuesday men who show up to ride with Thursday women" but that was too long and finally, we all agreed to the above title.  You can guess why "Fast" is in italics.

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Recumbent Dude is on the phone, begging his wife to bring him the missing front wheel.  Nate leads such a hectic life with weekly trips to Boston that I must cut him some slack.

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We all agreed that the sleeveless jersey would look better on Flyin and the sleeved would look much better on Steve O. Otherwise, they could be twins.

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One of our regulars, Claude, who races as a Cat 3 (note to self--quit taking images with sun directly behind people, geesh)

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The shady side of the building is an attractive place to hang prior to the start.  Tri-Mike in the foreground.

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Good gathering for the start but especially of the A group.  20 of us rolled out and not a weak link in there, well one anyway, with Steve, Jeff S, Dennis, Kyle Tingler, Colnago Ron, Terry, Mick, Muscle Dude, Jon the Dentist, Claude, Savage Hill Rick, Paul S, Marty, etc...  We headed out Waltons Parkway to Beech, then hit Miller going east and all the way to 310.  There was a fairly strong wind out of the north so that probably constrained Terry or others from making any vicious attacks. We hit Duncan Plains, topping out at #37 and then headed north on the freshly chip & sealed Castle.  Stayed on that all the way to Sportsman Club before a quick left and then a right sent us farther north on Nicols.  The pace through here was kind of high and after one particularly intense stretch, I looked back and damn if everyone was still with us. Almost everyone is in such great shape by this time of the year except....we made a right onto Dutch Lane and suddenly, boy, my legs felt really fatigued and no way to get out of the cross wind either, I slid back a few spots....slid out of the line altogether and could not catch the wheel of a chasing group of Dentist, Marty and Dave C.  The dentist was even nice enough to shout encouragement but I was done, at mile 19 and a 21.9 average. Apparently my easy riding of the last few weeks has caught up with me but that's ok.  I'm counting on the California mini training camp correcting this and when I come back....I'll probably still suck.   I took Northridge south and came past a C group and then turned left on Hardscrabble, thus missing the Louden to Stone Quarry loop, which was on the original 45 mile route. A B group caught up to me but I was waiting for the A's to appear and continued to soft pedal into Alexandria, where I waited at the turn onto Jersey Mill. Meanwhile, there had been a lot of action out on the road.  Jeff S dropped or broke his chain with Dennis stopping to help.  On Hardscrabble, someone had a flat and forced Kyle T off the road and still the group did not stop.There were at least 4 flats this night among the groups.  Eventually, Terry came roaring by, followed by Mick, Ron and 2 others but that was it.  I waited but no one else appeared so I headed west on Jersey Mill and then on old 161, Kyle T came by and he, I, Peggy (New Albany Peggy not Canal Peggster) and another guy put in a nice run into New Albany where I finished with a 20.2 average. 39 miles and 1200' of climbing. There was some talk in the parking lot about that guy in tennis shoes on the hybrid.  Get this Poobah, someone complained that the tennis shoe guy caused too many gaps in the line or something like that but everyone admired his strength.  I think the Tennis Shoe Dude hung with the A group through Stone Quarry, an astounding feat. 

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