TE Thanksgiving invitation!

[BikeMomma]

Our local cycling group will be doing our annual Thanksgiving Day ride in Merced (CA) on turkey day morning, and it occurred to me that this might be an opportunity for some of you TE gals to come to my neck o' the woods (er...rather, Valley) for a fun & friendly ride.

I'm sure most or all of you already have plans with family & friends, but if you're anywhere near here, you're most definitely welcome to join us. Bring your DH's & SO's!! The more the merrier! I didn't do the ride last year, as I wasn't conditioned enough yet to do it, but I'm told that there were about 50 riders that showed up. That's amazing for this area.

The ride will start at 8am at the Raley's Supermarket parking lot (for MapQuest-ing, the address is 3548 N G St., Merced). Our meeting spot is on the G Street side of the parking lot, near the Chevron gas station at the corner (incidentally, this is our meeting spot for our 8am Saturday rides - you're welcome to those too). We're planning on about a 40-50 mile no-stop ride over flat to rolling foothills, probably a moderate speed (maybe 17mph average). With this big of a group and having unfamiliar riders with us, however, it's hard to say exactly what pace it will be at. The group may split, as we have some faster guys and girls. Rest assured, though, we'll make sure we have someone ride with the out-of-towners. ;) And just a note, there will not be any sag support, so make sure you have all you need for road repairs. We will have at least a couple bike shop owners & mechanics with us on the ride, so you'll be ok, regardless.

So come on out, and help us give thanks for having this awesome sport, and the great friends we meet through it, in our busy lives. Gobble, Gobble!!

Oh! And there's a Starbucks up the street :D (note to self...make sure they'll be open...)

-BikeTurkey......uh...BikeMomma! :D

[cindysue]

Wish I could be there! But I'll be in SoCal with my mom...eating tofu turkey :p OK, not really - she usually makes me veggie lasagna :cool: Have fun!

[Veronica]

Yep - it's just a little too far for me to drive. Yahoo says a little more than two hours. Have fun!

V.

[SadieKate]

Good plan, but we have a date with yellow and DH to mountain bike in Salt Lake City.

[Trekhawk]

Our local cycling group will be doing our annual Thanksgiving Day ride in Merced (CA) on turkey day morning, and it occurred to me that this might be an opportunity for some of you TE gals to come to my neck o' the woods (er...rather, Valley) for a fun & friendly ride.

We're planning on about a 40-50 mile no-stop ride over flat to rolling foothills, probably a moderate speed (maybe 17mph average). With this big of a group and having unfamiliar riders with us, however, it's hard to say exactly what pace it will be at. The group may split, as we have some faster guys and girls. Rest assured, though, we'll make sure we have someone ride with the out-of-towners. ;) And just a note, there will not be any sag support, so make sure you have all you need for road repairs. We will have at least a couple bike shop owners & mechanics with us on the ride, so you'll be ok, regardless.
So come on out, and help us give thanks for having this awesome sport, and the great friends we meet through it, in our busy lives. Gobble, Gobble!!
Oh! And there's a Starbucks up the street :D (note to self...make sure they'll be open...)
-BikeTurkey......uh...BikeMomma! :D


BikeMomma - what a lovely idea to invite people to a ride on a holiday. Lots of people spend holidays on their own so this is a great idea.

Unfortunately for me its about three hours away and also I think the speed would be a little too zippy for me.

Thanks for thinking of us all.

Trek - slow but getting faster - Hawk :)

[laughlaugh18]

I'll be in line at the local Marie Calendar's for pies about then! :p

Have a great ride!

[jobob]

That's so nice, Kim ! We'll take a raincheck - maybe next year?

Hope the weather holds out for you in the valley - we've been having spectacular weather over here !

[BikeMomma]

Jobob - Next year sounds wonderful & hope you and Lee-bob can make it! This was sortof late notice anyway. I didn't find out the details of the ride until Saturday.

TrekHawk - the speed quite possibly could be lower. Since I didn't do it last year, I don't know for sure. But there will be alot of unfamiliar riders to our regular group, and I imagine some of those will be slower riders. So, I might lower that average to maybe 15/16mph. Would love to have you come out!

Mmmm yuummm....veggie lasagna and MC's pies.....I'm envious, Cindy and laughlaugh. :D

SadieKate and Veronica -- have fun with your plans for the day as well. Mountain biking in Utah! Wwwahooo! :D

[Trekhawk]

Jobob - Next year sounds wonderful & hope you and Lee-bob can make it! This was sortof late notice anyway. I didn't find out the details of the ride until Saturday.

TrekHawk - the speed quite possibly could be lower. Since I didn't do it last year, I don't know for sure. But there will be alot of unfamiliar riders to our regular group, and I imagine some of those will be slower riders. So, I might lower that average to maybe 15/16mph. Would love to have you come out!

Mmmm yuummm....veggie lasagna and MC's pies.....I'm envious, Cindy and laughlaugh. :D

SadieKate and Veronica -- have fun with your plans for the day as well. Mountain biking in Utah! Wwwahooo! :D

Hey BikeMomma - Well things are not looking too good for me going anywhere this Thanksgiving. My husband phoned last night (he is in Socal at the moment) to say he might not be home until late Thursday night instead of Wed. As if this is not bad enough my youngest woke up at 1am this morning vomiting. Yikes when one kid gets this the rest of them all seem to follow. So heres hoping I wont be holding buckets for sick kids this Thanksgiving.

Perhaps next year. Have a great ride and Thanksgiving.
Trekhawk

[BikeMomma]

Hey BikeMomma- I too will be spending Thanksgiving with family in San Jose. Riding this AM with my club pals in about 35 miins.

Cat Berge may show up on your ride. She lives in Visalia and I believe rides with members of the Merced group. Let us know!!

Have a great ride, its foggy and cool up here so I'm dressed in my warmies!
Unfortunately, Cat did not show, BG. I actually didn't see your post until after the ride, so I read it with a combined mix of excitement and disappointment. It would have been awesome to have her there. Hope you had a good ride, BikeGoddess. We had lovely sun here; cool, but sunny. :)

As it was Trekhawk, it's probably a good thing you couldn't come. The pace was decent and mellow heading out, but maybe halfway through, it started to pick up. I looked down more than a few times and saw we were doing 22/23, and a few times, we were flying down the road at 26/27. My max speed shows 30.7mph, probably on one of the foothill's downslopes. The speed was up most likely because the testosterone was running high -- there were a few younger guys there that raced in Europe this summer. So I guess the locals guys had to strut their stuff next to them. Fun fun.

I was dropped along with others at a particular section of rough road, simultaneous with the wind picking up slightly. Basically, I couldn't get enough air and the legs were mush at that moment....doesn't help I had just been yapping with one of the cyclists that I hadn't seen in years...a reunion of sorts. Once I recovered, I felt ok, but by then the main group was far up the road. So the few of us who were dropped regrouped and rode in together. I ended up pulling the last five miles or so. I refused to give up that easy. :p

The ride was interrupted three times -- by flats two separate times and a crash. One guy touched wheels with the rider ahead of him and down he went. Yeeouch! A blur of pretty baby blue bike and red jersey (I had been admiring the bike just a few miles earlier...from right behind him! :eek: ). He and the bike were fine, just a few scrapes but no ripped clothes, although he should buy a new helmet. His helmet did hit the pavement, although I don't think very hard; nonetheless, he should get a new one to be safe (remember that, girls). The crash could have been much worse -- he landed in the opposite lane, so there could have been a car coming (we were in the middle of nowhere, so the odds were in his favor), or he could have landed in the middle of OUR lane and taken most of us out. This is the first time I'd ridden with this guy....I wasn't too impressed. A few minutes after he crashed, he received a call on his cell phone, answered it, and was talking as he rode. I found myself thinking and very tempted to say out loud "Ummmm...Did you not JUST crash, Dude??? Are ya tryin' to crash AGAIN??" Major grrrrrrr! Needless to say, most of us steered clear of him from there on.

The ride ended up being 53.5 miles with an average speed of 16.8mph. That number is deceiving though, as it includes the moments of slowing down and stopping, restarting etc for the flats and crash, and a ride over to Starbucks afterwards (yep, it was open! Yippee Skippee!). I'd guesstimate our actual average speed of at least 19mph. I'm feeling it tonight, for sure. It's all good though....nothing a good turkey dinner and pumpkin pie can't cure. ;)

Hope everyone's day went super like mine. The ride was simply euphoric. Gorgeous out there today. Truly awesome.

-BikeMomma

[bikerz]

19mph!!!!! wow!

Sounds like a great ride - glad no one was hurt in the crash. I see people on their cell phones while biking all the time - it's about the craziest thing I can imagine.