The real last morning ride of summer

This Ride: 20 miles
Kona Distance: 3,648.4 miles
Month to date: 471.7 miles
2010 Total: 4114.9 miles
Pace to 5,254.8 mile goal in 2010: (270.5 miles ahead of goal pace)

After yesterday’s post, I looked up the beginning of Autumn, and discovered that it officially arrives at 11:09 pm today. That means that this morning’s ride was the real last morning ride of the summer.

A gorgeous morning it was.  The full moon hung low in the sky with a yellow/orange cast to it.  It was at least 10 degrees warmer than yesterday morning, so we were back in summer gear.  Eight of us were ready to ride Wicked/Wimpy Wednesday from the Rusty Bridge.  Everything seemed to be in order.  But summer would go out with a bang.

At Old County Road, I convinced Mike to join me in avoiding the hill in Round Bay, and we struggled to push the bikes fast enough to not get caught by the peloton by the end of the trail.  We switched off leading and drafting, spinning the pedals and pushing hard.  By the end of the trail, we still didn’t see lights behind us, and Mike said that this was the first time he hadn’t been caught.  As we waited a bit … and a bit more … and even more, we realized something was wrong and started back down the trail.  We were nearly to Glen Oban before we met the peloton coming down the trail.  They weren’t moving very fast, and a couple of riders were barely moving at all.  It was hard to see who was riding slow, the headlights were so bright.  We arrived at Glen Oban and waited for them, in part to discover what had happened.

After quite a wait, four riders showed up, and as we moved along B&A Blvd we learned that Dave had flatted (tubeless tire) with a cut tire, and when he installed a tube, it blew almost immediately.  Dan offered to take him home and so they limped to Dan’s house at that end of the trail.

Soon, we were cruising on the faster part of B&A Blvd when Jim and Bryan hit a pothole.  Bryan flatted, and we pulled over to assist.  After a quick but careful tube change, we were back on the bikes and within less than a mile, I heard air escaping from Bryan’s rear wheel again, and we pulled over to change yet another flat.  Bryan was just going to call home and give up, but we convinced him that replacing the tube would be quicker than waiting for his wife to come get him.  By this time the repair was finished, we were down to 3 riders as we eased into Severna Park.  Others just couldn’t wait any longer, with most of us already going to be late for work.

Bryan has had a real string of bad luck.  In the last couple of weeks, he’s had at least 4 flats and one major crash.  These problems really take quite a bit of the enjoyment out of riding.  Believe me … I know, as does another blogger I follow.

So my distance this morning was shorter than planned and it took longer, but to be able to help a fellow rider in need is a good thing.

It was still a very pretty morning.