I arrived at the Morning Call parking lot this morning to find only Woody, but we were loading his bike into the car one more showed up. Not to worry; I knew a number of people would be meeting us on the Northshore. It was time to go, so we drove across the street so he could park his car in the big Lakeshore Shopping Center parking lot where it wouldn't take up one of the more valuable spaces in the little strip mall. As we went past the Morning Call on the way to the Causeway I spotted Jen waving at us and pulled into the Post Office parking lot. She hopped into her car and dropped in behind us. Then, just as we were approaching the Causeway, I glanced in my mirror and she wasn't there. I figured she's stopped for gas, so I reached for my cellphone to call her, but discovered that I didn't have here number, so I didn't worry about it.
When we got to the parking lot at the Lee Road Middle School up on the northshore there was a pretty big crowd getting ready for the ride. I'd say around 20. Fifteen minutes later, though, Jen was still MIA, so I tried to call Brady but he didn't answer. I started to wonder if she had decided to bail out or maybe got lost trying to find the meeting spot. Anyway, we eventually rolled out, having never found out what happened to her. It was a few hours later by the time I found out that she'd indeed stopped for gas and was booking it across the causeway to catch up when she got pulled over for speeding. That made her so late that by the time she got there we were already gone. Definitely not a good morning for her.
Soooo, anyway, we had a nice big group that I knew wasn't going to stay together for the duration of our 65 mile ride. A number of riders were planning on cutting the ride short at one point or another. I think we lost a couple of people within the first ten miles, well before the pace started to pick up.
As we came over the watchtower hill, heading toward Enon, I looked up at the sky and thought, "We're going to get wet today," but it was warm and the roads were good, so I didn't really care. We were probably about 30 or 35 miles in, way out on the back side of the loop, when the first raindrops started to fall, and by the time we were heading east toward Plainview the light rain had turned heavier. I went to the back where I could sit up and stuff my camera into a Ziplock bag as the pace started to ramp up. We had already lost a few people, including Judith, so the group was starting to get down to a smaller core. Ed was looking pretty good today, as he had yesterday at the Giro, but a couple of the guys were starting to come off the back on the faster sections. Despite the rain and wet roads and constant wheelspray, there were still some attacks on the bigger hills, so this stretch was just as fast as usual, and it's usually very fast. Jay slingshotted past the group as we hit one of the longer climbs and put a big gap on us. We were practically to the turn onto Sie Jenkins Road by the time we caught him.
My legs were feeling pretty decent today, and we had picked up a pretty good tailwind, so I was happy with the fast pace. More than one rider, however, commented about the wisdom of going so hard in the rain on that old slippery macadam. Anyway, we regrouped at Plainview thanks to a flat tire and then headed back northwest right into the wind. I spent maybe a little more time hiding out in the back than I should have along this stretch.
Other than a brief stop at the Enon store on the way back, the pace was fairly steady today and I felt like I got in a good workout. Thanks to the rain I got back to the car with one of my two water bottles still full. Also thanks to the rain, my shoes were full as well. I really need to remember to drill some holes in the bottom of those Nike shoes. Later, as we pulled Woody's bike out of the car back in town, water poured out of the frame. As soon as I got home I got out the chain lube and cleaned things up. In the past when I've forgotten to do that I've found rust on the chain by the next morning.
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