There is an arrowed bike route that is a good mix of suburban and rural riding. I don’t do the whole route and track my mileage with my Garmin Tour GPS unit. I had been riding for around 45 minutes when I looked at the display and it read 2 miles. I had forgotten to press start so the device only recorded my MPH. Those lost miles were the bane of this ride. Every once in a while during the ride, those miles haunted me.
I decide that when I get home, I’ll use my car to record the miles that I lost and upload them to Strava where I’m recording my stats. Then I thought that the average speed would be out of whack for me. Then I thought that I would just drive slow. Right, that would go over with the drivers behind me on this endeavor. Then I though, who cares. So I didn’t go. I did however, shoot some video between the hauntings.
The storm passed, the sun began making it’s way through the clouds and the sky began to turn blue. It was 3:30 in the afternoon and it was time for a bike ride. The road bike got a tune up from Scottee’s Bike Shop in Westport. It was my second visit and I couldn’t be more impressed with the quality of workmanship, the friendliness of the wrenches and the reasonable prices.
Most of the regular road bike riders were done for the day. There was one unusual group that I ran into yesterday and today they passed me just at the right time. A couple more roadies on this route but basically it was me,some horses and a fruit stand.
The plan was a 21 mile easy spin to recover from Tuesday night’s hammerfest. I made arrangements with the owner of Hungry Heroes Sub Shop for some riders to park and we would be back for the after ride dinner. I led us out of the parking lot, looked back and was the only one riding . One of our riders got a flat a few dozen yards from the start. .
Geoff fixing his flat
As we rode on the MUP I began to quicken the pace from our 8 MPH. Everyone was keeping up OK. On this ride was the new kid. Nick got his first road bike for Christmas and during the ride over the weekend that I was video taping, I noticed how he stayed with the fast riders. After telling my co-leader, Flat Tire Geoff, where we would meet up, I told the kid to go to after burners. We quickly got our speed up, way up. As we were riding I gave him instructions on pace line riding, how I would signal him to take over the lead.
We were clipping along at a pace of 18-21 MPH, I pulled left to let Nick take the lead and that’s when I noticed there were 4 of us in the paceline, and there was a second one chasing us. Once Nick got the lead, the bastards dropped me.
Fortunately, I was the only one who knew the route we were riding and we had to regroup at strategic spots when there were choices of turns to make.
After this stop we had a Strava segment coming up. Sixteen year old Nick who has been riding for less than two months, pulled the whole group of us up Vaughn Hill road at 22 MPH. Near the top, I blew up and had to drop out of the contest and also noticed that the rest of the pace line had also blown up and dropped back.. It was just me and Nick. I yelled had him to go for it, he didn’t understand what I was saying and also dropped his speed. It’s too bad, because he was on pace to break into the top ten for this segment.
At the 1/2 way point Lloyds Market, we again regrouped and rode as a pack for quite a way stopping to visit the Clydesdale Ranch and another horse ranch. The Clydesdales were put away for the night, but Baby, a few miles down the road was more than happy to spend time with anyone who stopped by.
One of the reasons we had to stop and regroup was Nick’s dad riding sweep. Not by choice BTW.
The last highlight of this route was riding past the World Headquarters of Titelist Golf, the Acushnet Company. We arrived at Hungry Heroes with calories to spare just in time to see the closed sign.
I’m doing a video and stills shoot next week for a bike event. I needed to check out three routes and work out where I’m going to set up in a variety of places. One ride is 48 miles, one is 25 and the other is 13. There is a staggered start with the longer routes going out first. I’ll be using my car for the shoot, but I did all the research by bike. I have to say that the 48 mile loop has some very spectacular scenery.
On the way out I spotted two guys on the path that I have know for years. One was on foot and the other on a very old three speed. We stopped and chatted for much too long and I decided to move on. I looked away briefly to don my helmet and sunglasses when I hear the thump. The guy standing over his bike tipped over and whacked his head on the fence. He was unconscious, tore a chunk of his ear and the back of his head looked like a bullet exit wound. Two weeks ago, my riding partner was standing over his bike in NYC, fell over and broke his hip. My question…. Who wants to ride with me tomorrow
I was about to drive to yoga when the weather on the 8’s began broadcasting. It was raining but the prediction was for the sun to show itself after and eight day hiatus in just a couple of hours. That got me into the garage to check out the “made summer ready” road bike. I’ll keep this short. Continue reading “Three Flats and Sunshine.”→
It’s still below normal with temps in the mid 50’s. The weather will continue to improve for my 30 days of biking, culminating with a 65 degree day for riding NYC on Sunday. I planned on riding a new route beginning at yoga and adding 10 miles to my workout. Things didn’t pan out so I did one of the standard 26 mile rides.
It was hit and miss with the wind. It’s wasn’t bad for the most part, but there are sections of the route that are wide open farm land. Whenever I rode into one of those areas, it was a struggle to maintain anything over 11 or 12 MPH. That and a couple of the hills conspired to keep my average for the ride at just under 14 MPH.
I hadn’t planned on doing any stopping, sans Lloyds Market, but the animals were out in numbers today and being the sucker I am for good animal photos, I ended up making four or five quick stops.
The little guy above saw me stop, took a look and began meandering my way. As he got closer we spoke to each other baaaa-ing our feelings. He let me scratch his ears in the hopes I’m sure of a treat. From now on I’ll be packing something for them and the horses.
I see you.Let’s talk about treats.The Clydesdale were outRescue horses
The local weather gave a 40 % chance of rain for an hour followed by 10% for another hour. That gave me time to get in 26 miles for day 26 of 30 days of riding. It was one of those days where I got into the zone. For instance, Vaughn Hill is a nemesis of mine. I begin to dread the climb a half mile away. Today, I came out of the zone and realized I was a mile beyond Vaughn Hill. I climbed it and didn’t even notice. I did other hills at double digit miles where before today my speed would drop to 6 -8 MPH. I was having a blast.
I was really excited to see my stats for this ride because I know it was the fastest by far, of the season. Naturally, when I got home I shut down my Garmin and didn’t save the ride. I do have a wired bike computer attached but that only told me the time and distance with none of the fun stuff that Strava tells me when the information migrates from connect.garmin. Oh well. It would have been nice but within a couple more rides, this one would be out of sight and mind.
The last ride of this event will be in New York on Saturday. I’ll probably do a short ride in Staten Island before we take the ferry to Manhattan for registration. Sunday will be a celebration of completing 30 days of biking with 32,000 friends as we ride the 5 Boroughs and 5 Bridges of NYC.
The all turned and walked away when I approachedI had the roads all to myself
If I didn’t commit to 30 days of riding I very well may have ditched today’s ride. For a plethora of reasons, I didn’t leave the house till after 4 PM. The first few miles were a struggle to say the least. I could have turned around anytime and still have fulfilled my 30 days, but…… I have an event next weekend and don’t want to go to NYC wishing I had put more miles in preparation. Continue reading “Day 23. I Am The Egg Man”→
Touring season is approaching and I took the steel bike for a longish ride to the town of Wareham Ma. The Novara has been in my stable since 2008 when I did my first tour of the Erie Canal.
Wareham has been my go to ride for medium miles for years. There are two hills to climb to get to the center of town on the back road route. As I was climbing the first hill, a 30 something rider passed me and the only thing she did was a psheh sound when she looked at me and my bike. An old guy, no helmet, riding steel. psheh. Continue reading “Novara Randonee Touring Bike.”→
A Midnight Rider 