Originally Posted by
Norse
I spent the past 4 days doing the Red Ribbon Ride which is the AIDS/HIV ride for MN - a grand total of approximately 300 miles. Weather-wise, it may have been the RRR's best year ever - the dewpoint stayed reasonable, the temps under 90 and we frequently had glorious cloud-cover. Rain on the second leg of day 3 did cause one of my teamates to go down hard right behind me. He had a cut above his eye that was bleeding and bruises and gashes filled with road-dirt and pebbles in his shoulder, arm and leg. Mr. Tough Guy though insisted on continuing and he did! Day 3 also saw another teammate total his bike in the most bizarre way: he had athletic tape around a knee (many developed knee trouble during and following the unrelenting, multiple steep hills of day 2) which came loose, got stuck in a spoke, then the rear derailleur and when it was over, his derailleur was turned inside out, flipped 180, nowhere near the back cassette and it somehow bent the frame of his bike. Oh, another teammate got his tire caught in a crevass riding out of town on day 3 and flipped over his handlebars, but he was ok. There was more; day 3 was the Twilight Zone for our group.
I suffered from a saddle sore that was acquired in training, and of course got worse during 4 days of hard riding, but other than that, my body and bike both did very well. All in all, it was a fun, tough, delightful 4 days of bike riding with a great group of people for a very good cause - I achieved a personal fund-raising best of a little over $1,800! Yea donors!
Ride Strong!
Reply With Quote