Tuesday Report & Shermans March to the Sea

An early arrival at the Tuesday Canal ride, Kayla Starr, sporting fashionable Brighton sunglasses.  My knowledge of fashion has expanded exponentially this year, now adding Brighton to the DG brand I learned of earlier.

Decent turnout of around 35 for tonight's interesting route that included the climb on Becks Knob.  Actually, the turnout for the A group remains kind of putrid and ever since the sacking they endured at the hands of the New Albanyers, it's been kind of a dispirited bunch.  Kind of like farmers left in the wake of Sherman's March to the Sea scorched earth policy towards the end of the Civil War.  Most weeks, a single rider is sent down from New Albany, Billy C last week, Muscle Dude this week, to just check in and see if it's worth bringing the entire gang back but alas, the farmers have not put in a new crop and no reason for Sherman's bunch to come back enmass.  Maybe next year.  Tonight, it was Steve O, Scott Boss, Paul Stock, Craig Rice, Mark C, Kayla and a few others who shoved off with the A's, about 9-10 cyclists.  

Meantime, the B group is huge and comprised of a bunch of guys (and gal) that is boisterous and fun-loving.  As I'm riding both weekend days, I enjoy slotting in with this group and fighting Poobah for a position behind the Rossi tandem just kind of recovering.  Except, Karen was not feeling up to pushing Mark around so only Mark showed up on his regular road bike.  With him was Mike Murphy, Kevin H, dude above in yellow jersey, Corvair, Nathan, Dean, Kevin Kramer, Ryan Roe, David Smith, later Jeff S joined us and others totaling over 20 riders.

Poobah took the spot reserved for the ride leader, which happens to be the only shaded spot in the parking lot.  Upon his return from a warm-up ride, he found a banana peel on his door as a reward for his crass behavior.  Next time, we plan on smearing Chamois butter on his door handles and windshield wipers.  

Kind of a rolling route that took us over to the aforementioned climb, kind of a steep opening ramp, levels off some but still climbing to the summit.  Expansive views westward at the top but most people are too pooped to notice. Probably I should not have put us on Lithopolis Road for so long but it was a different way in and I enjoyed the change.  Late into the ride we still had around 15 people and had eased up at times to keep a larger group together. Finished with 37 miles and a 20mph average.