Flutterby™! : Today's ride 2006-08-27 20:59:17.090828+00

Today's ride

2006-08-27 20:59:17.090828+00 by Dan Lyke 5 comments

Lagunitas over to Fairfax where I met up with a large pack from Marin Cyclists, back up White's Hill, out through Nicasio, Point Reyes, Tomales, towards the lighthouse but we took a left to go to the top of Mount Vision. Stop at the awesome Busy Bee Bakery in Tomales, then back through Point Reyes and Nicasio, and I turned left on Sir Francis Drake and left the rest of the group to head on home. Visibility was poor, the coastal fog didn't lift 'til we were back on our way to Nicasio, but the ride was great.

68 miles, average 16.2, max 41.9. A large group, the pace was officially "B-C", and it was comfortable. Highlights:

Slowing down on a rise, wondering if I should get all cocky and blow around the group (and pass the Curt and Rebecca on the tandem, something not done lightly...), then looking down at the computer and seeing that we were still at 21.5MPH.
Climbing out of Tomales, getting ahead of the pack, breathing as much air as I could suck down as I battled Travis for the summit, and then, just before we topped out, having Ron, with 7 decades of experience, break free from the pack, close the hundred or two meters, and dust us both. It was some consolation that a few weeks ago he'd won the Nevada-California Time Trials for his age group by 7 minutes, and had just gotten back from a week of high altitude touring in eastern France.
I won't name drop or anything, but biking is the new golf, except with people you'd actually want to associate with.
Having Tim beside me mention that in this tight quarters I probably want a hand on my brakes. He couldn't see that I, in fact, had my right hand on my rear brake and was using it, which meant that I was smoother in the line than I thought.

And, well, I don't want to single anyone out, but I ended up drafting someone in Sunshine Bicycle shorts for a good distance, and that was really good advertising.

Wow. I can average 16 on flats, for about 40.. doing it for 68 on hills is cooking right along. Last Wednesday was a good night, even did Pineville Road's hill... Today I did a quick 15 miles, looking for hills, while Nancy was in Church, then we did a slow fun 5 miles along the RiverWalk after lunch. I'm craving some 40+ mile rides, An issue I;me having is the TIME it takes, as I get better at this.

As for it being 'rhe new Golf'.. Maybe, it's harder to talk biz-dev-speak while pedalling single file. While I enjoy group rides, I enjoy more that I can do this, at my pace, alone. Good thinking time. If I didn't use my ears so much, it'd be a great thing for 'books on tape', but listening is Soooo important.

Warkitty's doin' pretty damned good average, I take some solace in the fact that we had some hefty climbing and I took it easy on the stretch into Fairfax, that I usually do at over 20, 'cause I knew the day was going to be hard.

On the socializing, yeah, there's not gobs of smalltalk, but I think that when you're in a tight group on uprights there's a lot of chatter that happens and you get to know people fairly well...

We had an HPV racer on the BRAT last year. Nice fellow from Indiana or Illinois (I forget which) with great features and a voice to grate the nerves of anyone and a strange twitch to his mouth and nose that reminded me strongly of a mouse, which was odd on his tall, lanky frame. He was fast too. I knew he could easily outpace me on his bullet-shaped HPV but that didn't matter. We were only going to the mess hall that evening. He and his buddy invited me along after watching me swim about in the frigid waters of a mountain creek for about an hour while we chatted in general about life, the universe and everything.

The trip back to the camp was interesting. It was after dark, we'd spent too long at the buffet jawing about what we did when we weren't on bikes and what we did when we WERE on bikes, and I was the only one with a headlight on my wheels.

I only ever saw him at the campgrounds. Once we headed off for the next one, he was gone and I would arrive some time later to see him already unpacked, showered and relaxing. I made do with the general reputation of being "strong" rather than worrying about being "fast."