Wednesday Canal Winchester Ride

Three of us showed up at Canal for a 50-60 mile ride, Jeff S, who is now fully retired, Mark C who works half days on Sundays and me, who is a full-time working stiff and lucky to get out for a couple of hours.  Jeff especially is taking advantage of all his free time to ride, run and hike,  Dude has lost so much weight he looks like Justin Bieber but with huge calf muscles.  We headed toward Lithopolis but I noted Mark C was huffing and puffing more than normal and even fell back a bit.  Soon, he began the, "Oh, my pedal is about to come off" excuse.  Yeah, that one.  It works every time and some think better than the "heart palpatation" excuse. Note the lack of snow in the area. 

I did not notice anything wrong with the pedal and even took this image as proof.  Here, does this pedal look loose to you?  I thought not.  Each down stroke brought forth an update, "It just became looser".  Up hills, down hills, city sign sprints, flats, it didn't matter, our ears were worn out with pedal updates.  At what point does, "It just got even more loose" turn into a break?  Finally, after 10 miles, Mark decided to turn around.  He told us we could go on without him, kind of with, "It's ok if you guys abandon me."  So, what were we to do but escort him to his house, where upon entering the driveway the pedal did break from the crank arm so I guess he wasn't making it up.  He grabbed his mountain bike and we rode back to Canal, finishing with 30 miles. 

Hey, looks like Silent Dave's Winter Roving Ride is the place to be this Saturday.  He promises it won't be an out and back to Baltimore but an interesting, not too flat and not too hilly route of 60 and 30 miles. 9:00am start out of Cyclist Connection.  I'll try to get a firm destination out of him before Saturday.  Also, Grand Poobah is back in Ohio after a warm break in FL.  Kenda Janet is in Vegas and will be attending a private Alicia Keyes concert so I have asked for images.  Marty S and friends are in Santa Monica, CA for a training session and I am hoping to get a summary ride report.