Ride with Eddie!

[BikeMomma]

From the event photographer's site:
HPSI Photography (Eddy Merckx ride)

Eddy is wearing the black jersey with single red bands on each sleeve (short-sleeve jersey over black armwarmers). And riding the SWEET black carbon (w/red graphics), red tires.

Still have to post about the ride, but will still do that (promise!).
~BikeMomma

[maillotpois]

And I still haven't sent you those pictures... will try to get them to you today. (I almost never use the home desktop comuiter, so once mail's been delivered there's it's dead to me!)

[BikeMomma]

No worries, MP...whenever you get a chance.
~K

[BikeMomma]

Finally have some time to sit and post about the ride itself.

The whole Day with Eddy thing was awesome, and that's not even a big enough word for it. But actually, the ride itself was rather insane. It was somewhat disorganized and since it was put on by the ZteaM racing folk, a "moderate" pace was actually pretty darned fast. Unless you were up there in front with the Eddy group, the whole police escort idea was lost as everyone was eventually strung out for probably miles once it all ended. I don't think the pace dipped below a cruising speed of 20mph the whole time, and I regularly noticed we were going along at 22/23/24mph. My computer showed a max speed of 36 down one of the hills....

I'd guesstimate there were a good 150-160 people on the ride and pretty much everyone got dropped right from the start, which began with a pretty steep hill right off the bat. I started out somewhere I'd say in the first half, maybe middle, but not really near the front. I didn't realize the front "Eddy" group would be going out that fast until the pace did NOT slow down at all. After that realization dawned on me and I got to moving, I kept passing more and more and more people with no front group in sight. I finally caught them at around mile 25 and they were flying by then. As you might expect, the group contained pretty much nothing but racer-types. Crazy....

I was starting to get fairly pooped from the chase, though, and got dropped by the Eddy group on this little tiny hill (couldn't believe it!), but then caught them at an intersection, only to drop my friggin' chain and lose them again (I think I said some bad words at the time). It was a quick fix, but just that quick, they were gone again. And since it was no-man's land between the Eddy group and everyone else, I found myself trying to navigate my way through Sausilito all by myself. It was insane....

After I slowed up, I was saved by a ZteaM guy who said that he'd lead me and a couple others back to the starting point. He then proceded to lead us through a maze of bikepaths and side streets and then up this STEEP hill. So steep my ears were popping when I got to the top from the change in elevation, no joke. A cool part about that hill was when we came around one of the many switchbacks, we came upon a gorgeous doe standing by the side of the road, not more than five or six feet away from where I passed by. We startled her, but she didn't bolt or anything...she must be accustomed to traffic/people up there.

But we got back and overall, aside from not actually riding next to Eddy like I thought or hoped I would, it was a good, hard, fast ride, just what I needed for my part in a triathlon relay a couple days away from then.

They had an after-ride reception at the Oak Hill School the ride was benefitting (for autistic kids -- cute kids!), and so there were about 30 of us cyclists up there waiting around. Then out comes Eddy, all showered and cleaned up and looking all GQ in his Italian suit. I was in the presence of a god, I swear. I got him to sign my "free" t-shirt (not wearing or washing that, ever!) and he gave me a nice smile. Then I asked (or rather grabbed out of desperation) this graciously accommodating lady named Janet standing next to me to take the above pic with him from her digital camera (that's when I got the second smile from him....I was totally awestruck. He was probably laughing at me ).

Then lastly, as I was walking back down the hill from the school to my car, the car that Eddy was being escorted in started down the hill to leave....and I got a wave and yet another smile as he departed. Sweeeet!

There were Merckx bikes EVERYWHERE and people were decked out in vintage jerseys and Merckx clothing. Very awesome, indeed.

What was touching was that before the ride, the school director stood before the crowd and thanked the throng of Eddy fans for coming to ride, and expecially for donating our time and cash to their school. I could swear the lady almost cried. Figure the $100 minimum donation to do the ride times about 150 riders, and you have a hugely successful charity event. Made my heart feel good, Eddy's presence aside.

I'd do this again in a heartbeat. It was an incredible day with the Ed-ster and the host ZteaM.

Thanks for reading....
~BikeMomma

[BikeMomma]

Here are a couple pics that Sarah (MP) sent me (thanks Sarah). Hope you don't mind, but they really show his bike well. His steed that day was swwweeet, as you can see!





Also, I found a couple nice close-up shots of me from the photographer's site (link above). There are some great shots of Eddy there, too, as well as all the other riders.
BikeMomma1
BikeMomma2 In this one I look all focused & stuff -- scary!!

~K