Sunday March 9 Rides

[Mr. SR500]

Didn't you guys get hammered with snow this weekend? We did

[Mr. Bloom]

53.20 miles on the new Orbea bike I picked up yesterday... I think I have a new favorite!

Did you have to cancel your class on Saturday due to weather?

[Fredwina]

I may make you all jealous , but I was short sleeves today!
The only problem was the wind. No Dust storms this week
Rode to the womens' ride and wound do a brief tune clinic. also taught how the pedal when riding in your drops
Finally, went by the library on way home. my books overflowed my bag, but I got them all home unscathed.
not bad to get 29 miles in

[Trek420]

I'd planned a short easy ride with Spazzdog but she text'd me early and said she was not feeling well. So we've postponed the "It's Spring, Get off the couch" ride till next week. I'd better get in shape because she's started riding to work or it'll be "Trek stays on the couch" after the ride.

So I did a half hour or so on the bike while watching VS. racing broadcast the Paris to Nice, a couple easy walks with the mutt.

Also I planted a few plants in the front yard.

[melissam]

Today's AIDS/Lifecycle Training ride was a sneak preview of the infamous Quadbuster hill. Since I have never ridden the actual ALC ride or Quadbuster, I wanted to see what it was all about.

A group of us started from King City High School, and made our way thru the rough roads of King City. I tell you what -- even with a carbon frame, I still felt pretty beat up. The good news is that there used to be a lot more rough road on this route, but it's been repaved and is much smoother.

About 20 miles into the ride, we found ourselves climbing the notorious Quadbuster. I just kept pedalling up the hill and reminded myself of all the advantages I have for hill climbing: 1. I only weigh about 115 lbs right now, 2. I have a light bike (Brooks saddle notwithstanding), 3. I have a triple in front and moutain cassette in back. If I recall correctly, Quadbuster is 1.3 miles at around 10% -- piece of cake!

We all made it to the top of Quadbuster. I broke out my Margarita Shot Bloks so we could celebrate!

Then it was time to turn around, go down hill and back to the start. Life was good, right? After all, the reason you climb a hill for the fun of the descent. This particular descent was straight with a good shoulder. Felt pretty safe.

Unfortunately, it wasn't. About a third of the way down, the person riding in front of me said, "Oh sh!t!" I thought she had a flat or other mechanical issue, so I backed off and asked what was up. And then I saw it. One of our riders was down, lying on the shoulder of the road -- his bike was sprawled out next to him.

The group of us riding behind him pulled over. Everyone did a great job of handing an emergency situation. We ascertained what was wrong with our fallen comrade (broken collarbone) and how coherent he was. We directed traffic away from him. We found that someone had a cellphone that got reception and called 911.

It didn't take long for him to ask the big important question: how was his bike? Nice bike, Dura Ace equipped Cervelo -- needs to have the front wheel trued and get the right brake lever put back into place, but it will probably see many more miles on the road. His helmet is toast. His jersey will have to be retired, as it sustained some pretty significant tears.

The emergency folks showed up -- 2 CHP officers, then the ambulance and fire truck. He was taken down into King City and airlifted back to SJ Regional. One of the firemen had a pickup, so he took the bike down to the starting point. One of the riders in the group ended up driving his car + the bike back up to San Jose.

After that, we had a somber ride down the rest of the hill and a slog into the headwind back to the start point.

And then...I heard from my housemates that 3 cyclists were hit on Stevens Canyon Road in Cupertino by a deputy sheriff, and 2 of them died. A hard day for cyclists to say the least.

Yesterday's ride with the Russians was much more fun to write about.

[PscyclePath]

Here's the newest addition to my little fleet, a 2008 Orbea Onix TDF...



Lightning does strike twice sometimes... About 4 years ago I won an Orbea Velota at the Tour de Rock ride in North Little Rock, and it's been my back-up road bike for a good while. Last month, I went over to the local bike shop's customer appreciation night to pick up some closeout deals on tires, winter duds, and a very nice set of panniers, and wound up winning the door prize, an '08 Orbea Onix. The prize was actually a TDI model, but I threw in a little boot and got the next model up, with the Ultegra gruppo. Orbea bikes are pretty awesome to start with, but I am really impressed with this Onix. Maybe not superlight (17.5 pounds), but is doggoned fast, and smooth.

Orbea USA is located right here in downtown North Little Rock, and Chainwheel is their local distributor.

Mr. S:
Yep, the Road I class got snowed/iced out Friday evening. We got about 4 inches of snow, which was okay, but then the temps dropped to about 23, and we had glare ice late Friday night and Saturday morning. So, no class, since it's tough to do the parking lot drills on ice without losing a lot of hide. And the course is supposed to be about how not to crash, not a practical exercise in crashing

The ice was pretty much gone by noon, though, so I headed over to Chainwheel to pick up the new bike, then took it out for an 18-mile shakedown spin. About 37 degrees and a stiff wind, but still a lot of fun. It climbs nicely, too... I took the original tires off Sunday morning and replaced them with the new blue-striped Rubino Pros that I got on customer appreciation nite for a little extra bling. The seat bag kind of stands out, but hey, it was supposed to be a red bike... I'll get that fixed in a couple of days or two...

Tom

[Bad JuJu]

Over the past few weeks I've been upping my mileage, from my usual 30-32 to 40-42. I rode 42 last Sunday and 40 yesterday. Last Sunday, I felt like a million bucks and yesterday I felt like...well, like you-know-what. All around. My muscles and joints hurt, my breathing was the pits, and I struggled up every little roller. Jeez, if that had been my first ride ever, I'd never have gotten on a bike again. I can't think of anything I did differently other than spending too much time at my desk during the week and having pancakes for breakfast rather than my usual oatmeal. It doesn't seem like that should've been enough to change the whole ride experience like it did.

Have any of you had this kind of experience, where you feel great one week, then do virtually the same ride the next week and feel like you can't wait to get off the bike?

[SheFly]

Well, no rain on the ride today, but was it WINDY! Went out and rode with some of the Elite team - did 44 miles (in the sunshine - YAY!) with an AVERAGE wind speed of 21.6 mph . I just want to ride on DRY roads with little to NO WIND...

I don't think this is too much to ask, despite it being March in New England .

SheFly

p.s.
PP - nice new ride! And can I have some of your luck?