What Part of Easy Don't You Understand?
Bart threw out the invite at the Destroyer ride. His girlfriend was wanting to do a more relaxed group ride, so they were going to join some other riders for a ride from the Latimer Community Center. Planned average was 17.5 MPH (sounds kinda specific to me). Since I was trying to back off a bit this week, but still wanted to get in some miles, I said I was in.
I hadn't ridden much around Latimer in years. My only attempt to make a posted ride this trip nobody else showed up for. I didn't think it was still a thing. Nice roads out that way, but I couldn't quite remember where they were, and was too lazy to try to find the old GPS files. As I found new routes, Latimer just faded to the back of my mind.
I was pleasantly surprised to see a nice group at the community center Sunday morning when I rode up. Despite the time change and extra hour to be lazy, I was still slow to get out of bed. I made it with five minutes to spare, which is cutting it a little close when you're riding instead of driving.
The group set off a relaxed pace, right around the announced speed. Since I didn't know where I was, I settled in the middle of the pack and cruised along, talking to various riders and generally relaxing. Occasionally a tandem would come to the front, pulling on the downhills and flatter sections. When it went uphill, they went a little backwards, which isn't surprising considering how much their very nice bike must have weighed.
In one of these situations, a rider jumped. I couldn't help myself. I was boxed in for a few seconds before I followed, bridged, and together we built a significant gap before we reached one of the traditional regroup spots. I silently called myself an idiot before we started off again, vowing to slow it down and take it easy.
That vow was broken five miles later, where I breezed by the tandem on a hill and kept going. A couple hammers joined up, and before I knew it the group was out of sight. They seemed inclined to make the break stick, so we settled into a pace six miles per hour faster than the intended speed. Crap.
We reached the community center fifteen minutes before the last riders. I reflected that those people were the smart ones.
What amazed me was the restraint Bart showed when we jumped. He must really like his girlfriend, who seems like a pretty awesome person and a really good rider. He'll probably show up at the Destroyer well rested and make us all hurt.
I'll be cooked from my easy ride.
I hadn't ridden much around Latimer in years. My only attempt to make a posted ride this trip nobody else showed up for. I didn't think it was still a thing. Nice roads out that way, but I couldn't quite remember where they were, and was too lazy to try to find the old GPS files. As I found new routes, Latimer just faded to the back of my mind.
I was pleasantly surprised to see a nice group at the community center Sunday morning when I rode up. Despite the time change and extra hour to be lazy, I was still slow to get out of bed. I made it with five minutes to spare, which is cutting it a little close when you're riding instead of driving.
The group set off a relaxed pace, right around the announced speed. Since I didn't know where I was, I settled in the middle of the pack and cruised along, talking to various riders and generally relaxing. Occasionally a tandem would come to the front, pulling on the downhills and flatter sections. When it went uphill, they went a little backwards, which isn't surprising considering how much their very nice bike must have weighed.
In one of these situations, a rider jumped. I couldn't help myself. I was boxed in for a few seconds before I followed, bridged, and together we built a significant gap before we reached one of the traditional regroup spots. I silently called myself an idiot before we started off again, vowing to slow it down and take it easy.
That vow was broken five miles later, where I breezed by the tandem on a hill and kept going. A couple hammers joined up, and before I knew it the group was out of sight. They seemed inclined to make the break stick, so we settled into a pace six miles per hour faster than the intended speed. Crap.
We reached the community center fifteen minutes before the last riders. I reflected that those people were the smart ones.
What amazed me was the restraint Bart showed when we jumped. He must really like his girlfriend, who seems like a pretty awesome person and a really good rider. He'll probably show up at the Destroyer well rested and make us all hurt.
I'll be cooked from my easy ride.
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