Thanksgiving

Once again, I ate too much. It's almost impossible NOT TO! Ther is just so much good food about, and you have to try a little of this and a little of that. Next thing you know... We spent the day with some of our neighbors. It was different, but it was a lot of fun.

I'm glad that there is nothing I need (or want) bad enough to get out of bed in the wee hours of the day and stand in line outside a store just so I can get a deal on something. I like getting a deal, just not that much. I got 2 new cell phones today BOGO free, $19.99. I also just picked up a new pair of shaped skiis. I got last years model for 46% off the original sale price. I think they will shred the gnarly stuff and plow through the powder just like this years model.

It was 77 yesterday and that made for a sweet pre-turkey ride. Tomorrow's high will be 51. Brrrrrrrrr! That's still better than 42 and rain. Later!

Great Riding

Five adventurous riders from Ohio made the trip down to NC last weekend for some winterish riding. The boys were in great form as we followed a nice loop out through the wetern fringes of Wake County up over Jordan Lake and back into downtown Apex. Although the weather was cooler than normal and the wind picked up, we had a pretty decent ride of just over 52 miles.

Sunday, we joined the local bike shop ride of 40 or so riders on the regular social ride. Two of the boys decided to run with the A group and all I knoe is that they finished the ride and did it faster than the rest of us. The remaining four of us stayed with the main group of B riders. I was amazed to see Bud pulling on the front for so long. He was followed closely by "Shoeless" Kevin B. on pulling duties. And not to be outdone, Todd finally let his legs do the talking by hammering up the final climb (which I still can't stand) to take the KOM honors. Give that man a polkadot jersey!

In between rides, we enjoyed some NC barbecue, a little Moe's and subs from Rudino's. The highlight of the weekend however was the Ohio State Buckeyes trouncing those pussies from Michigan. Ah, we had fun watching that game, didn't we???

Since its almost Thanksgiving, let me say that I'm thankful to have, among other things, a great group of riding buddies! Ride on.....

Rules of the Road

I've been thinking about the rules of the road lately. That is, the bicycling rules of the road. I've decided that most of them are unwritten, and most are learned by observation, trial and error. There was a guy on last weeks ride who had been disinvited because he broke the off-the-front rule. He rode most of last weeks ride...off the front. The response of the group was ultimately to pretend he wasn't there. If he was interested in riding at a faster pace than we were riding, 18mph, he had the chance to ride with the faster group. He CHOSE to stay with what he knew was the 18mph group. So why then act like we are going too slow for you, bro??
Another unwritten rule was highlighted last weekend: don't ride near a guy with a creaking bike! Chaz bought some high dollar Zipp wheels for his bike, but his front wheel was making an awful clicking noise. It was hilarious to see how someone would ride near him, realize HE was making that noise , then slowly drift back away from him like he had a disease. A wise mechanic decided it was an extra long presta valve stem that needed a little electrical tape to keep it from knocking on the rim.
Never ever ever talk on a cell phone in the peloton! This seems obvious to me but its amazing how many people try to do this. Apart from the huge safety issue, I don't know how you could hear with the wind screaming through your phone.
One of the most dreadful things I have encountered is a dropped water bottle. Especially when you're in a group with 30 plus riders at a good pace. Someone usually screams "Bottle!!!!!" and then the panic sets in and the collision avoidance maneuvers occur. If the bottle doesn't take you down, any number of people trying to miss the bottle can take you down just as effectively. And the WORST case senario is when the person who drops the bottle brakes hard like they are going to hop off their bike and pick up that bottle! Good grief! Dude, there are 25 people beind you going fast: now is not the time toi ris life and limb (yours or mine) to save a $5 watre bottle.
Then there is Dick (a perfect name for him) aka loud talker guy. This guy talks so loud that I know hes a financial planner, he has a lot of doctors as clients (really impressive, right), he is single(I suspect his wife left him) and he is thinking of retiring in the next 5 years and moving from his 2 acre lot to a low maintenance condo. Not that he's ever spoken DIRECTLY to me. He just likes to talk and he talks loud. I am not happy that I know all this about him but its like he forced it upon me. Kind of like second hand smoke.
There are lots and lots of other rules, but I'll save those for another post. Ride on!