8/15-16 Rides In Review

Lodge

Whew....Well Sweet Spot and I met up with the Italian Stallion(IS) at the Lodge Ride on Sat. We got a bonus because Robert and crew were getting a professional group picture done. One at the start and one at the Traffic circle on 210. I hope we didn't break the camera...I know my bike is pretty but I am not, especially at that time in the morning. The ride started out nicely at an easy pace down to Micklers. That is always a good time to catch up with friends while warming up the legs. The pace was still OK up to the traffic circle due to the aforementioned photo opportunity. I know we confused all of the cars yielding since we did a 360 then continued on the ride since Pablo was setup on the Publix arc.

The pace picked up towards the 210 bridge, I found a rear that I recognized (easy guys, it was KH) and proceeded up the hill. I stayed on and realized quickly that our trip back was going to be fun since I was hitting 35+ on the way down....

I looked back and saw that Sweet Spot and IS had dropped just off the back of the group flying down the hill so I peeled off to let them grab a friendly wheel. We humped it back up to a group as we got into Nocatee. It is very true that 100 yards behind a fast group is as good as 10 miles. It was too much effort to grab on so we backed down, kept a steady pace and caught them on a turn around. I grabbed onto the group that I thought was the one we were trying to ride with....Jumped up to 24 mph and took my turn pulling, broke off, looked back and realized I had gotten myself into a faster subset of the group we wanted to ride with. At this point we lost IS for good (Sorry Man). I understand due to the amount of effort we used to catch a couple groups and he already had 10 miles or so from his house before the Lodge ride even starts (Kudos to him).

After a couple more spokes and extended effort by Sweet Spot, we pulled off and headed back over the parkway....and yes...the wind reminded us that we were tired... We made it back to Micklers, stopped and had our Ambiguously Gay Duo moment when I helped him stretch his back. We got a second wind and had a good average speed back up to the truck.

It was a good ride, it again showed us the importance of staying with the group!

Sunday Ride:

This was our normal (as of late) Sunday ride local to East Arlington(Home Base). It was myself, Sweet Spot(Back for more fun), Diesel, Schmuckatelli and Red Shirt (FNG, Clue... we haven't decided). Masher was under the weather and Buffalicious was a no show (I guess he is either "skeerrrd" or not able to balance late night partying with early morning riding).

We were all riding strong. We still need to work with Red Shirt on his group riding skills since he is new. Since he is young and strong, I guess he doesn't mind riding a couple bike lengths behind the rider in front of you...Hey if you want to pull the whole ride, more power to you.... Schmuckatelli made an appearance up at the front this week...I wonder if last weekend's continuous stay as the caboose kept him fresher for this week. Diesel always rides strong and consistent. Sunday was no different. Sweet Spot took some miles at the front of the group and kept us at a good pace. The wind whipped a bit heading up to and over the Wonderwood. Even though we were almost creamed by the same car at different times and places in the ride and me trying to get everyone hit at the Wonderwood/Girvin stop light( I just didn't want to loose my momentum, sorry all) it was a good ride. I had some left in the tank so I tried to attack on both sides of the bridge. I try to remember our motto when I start to fizzle..."We Do It Because It's Hard"

Till next week.........