Thursday Gravel

Last night Ho Fo Sho, Kew, Greg W. and I saddled up the fat tires and headed south on the Jamaica trail to the Roca tavern on a perfect night.  After a couple of cold ones and some good storytelling (ask either Kew or me about our embarrassing falling while riding clipless pedals stories), we decided we were hungry, so we got back on the trail and headed back to town for some Mexican food at the usual post ride gathering place.  Definitely my kind of ride.

I haven't posted about rides for a while, so here are some random thoughts and pics from the last month or so:

I had a great 45 mile SOLO ride last Saturday while evidently some people were still recovering from FAC.  You know who you are - you missed a great ride, and I was disappointed to not get the opportunity to ride with you and laugh some more, but it was a great morning, and I enjoyed myself anyway.  The only thing that bummed me out was when I took the turn at Hallam to go back to Highway 77, and realized that they had covered that perfect, smooth, road with chip-seal.

Since returning from vacation badly out of shape, I have tried to get out more on some of the group rides.  The Monday ride has been a big one lately, with lots of folks showing up and a very reasonable pace.  With a lot of riders, it seems like we get more flats, though.  One night a guy showed up who had never had a flat or changed a tire, and was ready to call his wife to pick him up until we convinced him that it is possible to change a tube on the road.  Here we are waiting for him to finish learning how to change a flat.

The new chip-seal on the shoulders and some of the roads around Sprague is also contributing to more flats than usual.  There have been Jendeluxe sightings on several of the Monday rides - here she is recovering after catching up to the group when she had to stop to fix a flat.

The Wednesday ride has also been well attended.  The pace has also gone up.  The first ride I did on the Wednesday after vacation I got dropped, which I expected since I hadn't ridden in a while.  However, this last Wednesday I got dropped again, which really had me questioning my fitness until I checked my average speed when I got home.  I averaged 18.5 mph, and that was doing the last third of the ride solo after getting dropped.  That is faster than that ride usually goes, and is a pretty healthy speed for me on any ride, so I guess it's not me getting slower, it's just that everybody else got faster.  Here is a pic at the turnaround spot at Bluestem Lake.

I enjoyed last Friday's FAC - let's all get out together to ride bikes again sometime.