SART 9/30/12

A nice warm Sunday ride with Gina. Again a pretty empty trail. We stopped near the Imperial wooden bridge but only saw maybe 5 riders go by. Most times we see 30 within 5 minutes or so. Gina thought it was nice though.

On the way back to the coast we ran into Tammy & Alan. At the coast we met up with Tony for a short visit then we rode back together to his turn off. Before Tony showed up LewisAClark rode up for a good chat. Hadn't spoke with the guy in a while so it was nice to hear from him again. Bad news was that his father had some heart problems. He's OK though. After that we had some pretty good laughs going into some real life details. Pretty good stuff and nice to hear I'm not the only one who thinks there is a little too much madness in this world, on and off the bike ha ha!

Back to Tony. Last week we saw him and his wife riding MTB's on the trail. I didn't recognize him at all. I gave my usual friendly hello thinking he was just another rider out there. After we crossed paths Gina mentioned that the rider was Tony. Naaaaah! I don't think so! She said Yeah, that was him, then I said like no it wasn't then she said like yeah it was, then I said like no it wasn't! Well you get the picture. But turns out it was him. He and his wife did a pretty good ride together. I'm thinking it won't be long before she's out there on a roadie. Oh, and to tell you the truth, she looks a little too young for Tony..... even though they're the same age. ;-)

LewisAClark. Be honest, how many of you didn't notice there was a bike in the background?

                                                      The top view My Space pose

                                            I asked for a smile, this was the best he could do!

                                               Tony with the today's "Shiny Man" award

Uneventful Solo Ride on SART 9/29

Well Gina had bidniss to take care of today so I had a chance to ride alone, so I did. Trail was every empty but nice. I figured there had to be  big organized ride going on somewhere. The Grand Fondo now that I remember. Either way, the trial was empty.

Very uneventful day, I did see Ron & Dixie a couple of times, actually three times. I don't think they saw me at Yorba Park watering up my bottles. I saw Alex2 there. cutting his ride short today. 65 is a short ride for Alex ha ha! I saw Jeff & Angie but other than that, almost a ghost town. After the ride I ran into Mark, Tammy & Alan at the parking area. It was kind of strange riding alone after spending so much time on the bike with Gina. I must bore myself cause I didn't take one pic or get one video clip on this ride ha ha!

I headed out to Green River from the Leaky Fountain, to the coast and back for 61 miles. I have an organized event next weekend so I wanted to do my rid today with limited stop time. 61 miles @ 16.9 average with only 13 minutes of stop time. Not bad but I did forget to pick up an energy bar last night and I didn't feel like stopping at any of the Quick marts around so I just passed on the energy bar. Felt pretty good throughout the ride but the hungry feeling on the last 5 miles told me I should have downed a little sup'm sup'm!

Trying to limit my stops, I only stopped a couple of times for water and to mix some Gatorade via powder. Only once to wee wee but still added up to 13 minutes even though it felt like I didn't stop at all. I guess I'm just a slow tinkler ha ha!

Getting ready for the ride next week I figured I'd clean up my bike and put on the new rear tire for a test ride tomorrow (make sure the tire has no defects). On the last mile I ran over a huge wad of gum. So now I have gum strings all over my bike, what a mess! Brake calipers front and back, both rims, BB area and guide, front tire,  front and rear spokes. To the person who tossed the gum on the trail, I hate you and you have a big mouth ha ha ha!

SART Weekend 9/22 & 23

My Pet Peave

This I am guessing is must be my pet peave. I'm doing our friendly ride with Gina and a couple others, Jose and Aimee. We're doing our usual pace, no racing, no aggressive moves towards any other riders. BUT! We see this one guy way ahead of us. The trail is long and flat and you can see for a mile, maybe 2 ahead if you look hard enough, and we weren't.

But at one point we see this dude coming into view. We get closer and closer and I am pulling. I have been for the first 45 miles of our 60 miler as I like to control the pace for Gina, avoiding sprints and gaps making it easier for her to stay with me (fun that way). So maybe 1/4 mile before we catch the guy I ask Jose to take the front while I catch a breather. No problem but I ask him to keep the same pace so he does.

So we roll up on this dude and politely try to pass with a friendly "on yer left". The looks back then sprints away. OK, you're bad! So we continue our pace and this dude fades about 1/4 mile later. OK, no problem, we catch him and begin our pass a second time. You can see in the video we weren't pushing the pace. A second "onyerleft" and we begin the pass. We pass, so I thought only to find that he had latched onto Gina's side. OK, WTF! Fall back but don't freaking bump my wife. I really didn't know what was going on back there assuming we just passed the guy. Next thing I know he calls "onyerRIGHT" and squeezes through, WTF!!

So he does this weak sprint then pulls away like the hero that he is! I feel Jose lift the pace in response so I say "let him go, he'll fade anyway". So Jose backs of the pace and resumes the usual. I'm sort of tickled knowing that he would do something like this as it happens all the time. I'm not sure if it's because I'm a big dude and these hot shots feel threatened when someone of size passes them. Or could it be that they don't like the idea of getting chicked by two gals. Or maybe that Jose looks like a total fred with his compression socks (for vericose veins).

So anyway the dude falls back again but this time he hangs on the back till he recovers. THEN he sprints around again. At least the guy used the left side this time. So he rides off and again I tell Jose just let him go as he's really getting on my freaking nerves by now! We backed off the pace and just let the clown vanish into thin air. Heck, it was way better than having some asshat taking down one of the gals for a trip to the hospital.

I for the life of me can't understand why these asshats insist on interfering with our smooth rides. Heck, if you're fast, then do us a favor and go! If not, then GTF outta the way! Something tells me catching him from far behind means he wasn't fast so he should have just got GTF outta the way so that he didn't hurt any of our riders. Umm, we did a 60 mile ride at a 15.9 average so I guess he felt really special trying to stay ahead of our blistering pace ha ha!

And for those who say it's the trail riders, don't be fooled. When we did our century a couple weeks back, I saw plenty of the foolish and dangerous cyclist behavior on PCH. Like I say, I'm not anti cycling, I'm anti stupid!  ;-)