Apr 18/19 - just in case you're wondering ..

I'm back. It was a good ride. I'll provide a full update tomorrow a.m.

.......

oh ... I can't leave it at that. We're watching Slumdog Millionaire -- or at least Sandy is and I'm catching a bit of it.

It was a good ride ... as usual a mixed bag ... and there's no such thing as an easy ride of this length ... at least for me !

As planned, the ride got off at 3am. Jim had mentioned that there were roads flooded and that there would be detours, and there was a label stickie that had a major detour that he pasted to the cue sheets. He started talking about this road and that road flooded and that we'd be doing this and that ... clearly directed at those people who knew the area. I asked the dumb question -- is it covered in the one big detour -- and the answer was no. Great. However, that detour got us to the lunch stop and he provided more details there, and a map. For the most part I could use the pre-programed course on the GPS, with a few jogs.

The first "day" went quickly. Alain & Vita on the tandem, Hamid and I, plus to recruits, so to speak -- Pat and Alan. Pat is probably in his mid to late sixties; Alan would be around my age perhaps, hard to tell. All strong riders, but Alan was clearly not used to riding in a paceline. He drafted quite closely, but wavered from side to side with stretching movements etc. making it very difficult to draft behind him. Pat, on the other had, was a rock -- good in any position. Alan was actually good in the lead position, except that he probably hung on too long -- actually we all did -- pulls are not supposed to last 5-10 miles !

Hamid was a little under the weather and only pulled once -- a taste of things to come.

The Central Florida ride was broken into 250/125 segments; this one was 225/150 -- both give or take. I got into the dinner control (the hotel) at 9:15 two weeks ago; yesterday we got in at 7:30. It was too early to go to bed ... so Alain, Vita, Alan and I opted to cleanup, eat and get back together at 8:45 to leave. Surprise, surprise -- when I came back down to the RUSA hotel room to meet the others, Alain & Vita & Alan were there; Hamid was there - surprise -- Hamid had been determined to get some sleep but was feeling so good that he changed his mind.

That was a mistake. We got rolling and about 20 miles late Hamid stopped to fix his wheel magnet which was hitting the sensor -- but that that wasn't the problem. We stopped several times to see if we could figure out what was making the noise, culminating in a fair amount of time at the 1st control on the road. it sounded like spokes being plucked like a harp ... sort of. Before the 1st control we stopped at a gas station under the light and tried to figure out what it was. When I held the bike horizontally and spun the rear wheel it would make the noise. Tellingly, it would also stop spinning in a few seconds -- probably a wheel bearing issue. However, at the first control. Hamid was done in. He was exhausted and between the prospect of having to stop by the roadside between there and the next control -- 70 miles away -- either due to exhaustion or a mechanical problem, he decided to call it quits for the day. He called Jim Wilson, the RBA, to get a pickup. Jim agreed to pick him up at 6am after all the other bikers were on the road -- it was 1:30am at that point.

We left the control and rode on. Predictably, I got cold. The temperature was probably in the low 50's and in daylight I'd be dressed well enough but we rode 10 hours in the dark. For about three of those hours I was not a happy camper ... but knew that it would be over soon enough. I wasn't going to get frostbite; I wasn't going to get hypothermia; I was just cold.

Not only that, but the convenience stores were few and far between -- would you believe 60 miles -- that translates into 4 hours of dark riding, however, the four of us on our three machines managed, and got into the final control -- the hotel -- at 9:53 -- 30:53 after we'd started. Hamid was already back, cleaned up and waiting for us. Not happy about his DNF, but content that he made the right decision, he expressed some doubts about the Shenandoah 1200. I'm sure that he'll be ok once he gets some rest and reflects on the reason for the DNF -- partly mechanical and partly lack of rest. Both of those can be remedied.

I have not picked up the stats from the cyclecomputer yet. I'll post those later.

After getting in, I showered, had some breakfast and went back to the room and had a one hour nap. After finishing packing the car, I headed home. One hour of sleep sure made a difference as to how awake I was driving, compared to two weeks ago. I guess that should be no surprise.

We don't have much time. We leave early Tuesday morning. I started doing some cleanup on the Brevet bike -- the Hummer -- and went ahead and swapped the 39/53 crankset for the compact cranks. I'll probably use that bike for the ride in PA next Friday to get some experience with those cranks on hills -- I'll find out whether this was a worthwhile decision !

Of course, I also found that I need a new bottom bracket ... sigh ... and did not have a spare. The drive-side bearing is grinding. It'll last another couple of rides ... won't fall apart in that time ... but cannot be left too long. I think that I have one up north, but I'm not sure. I suppose that I could order one for delivery to Jeffrey's ... there's still time. It's not an expensive part.

That's it for now -- need another shower, then it's off to Mass, then we're having dinner at the SYC. It's a "free" dinner in the sense that it will fit under our monthly minimum of $60. We're just going to have sandwiches and a drink at the Tiki Bar.