An ordinary Thursday

This Ride: 28.6 miles
Month: 741.7 miles
2011: 5,016.1 miles
Total since 1/1/2010: 11,135.8 miles

There were seven riders out this morning for a warmer start than yesterday’s finish. Five sprinted off the front. Mike C. & I couldn’t hold the pace, so we pressed our own speed as much as we could and had a nice ride to the end of the trail. We waited for Scott, who had not been able to keep up with the fast guys, and the three of us rode back together until … Mike popped a rear spoke at Glen Oban. We wrapped the spoke to its neighbor, opened the rear brake, and Mike rode easy, choosing to get back on the trail to avoid big hills since he didn’t have much breaking from the rear brake. Scott and I rode and talked about the upcoming Seagull Century. It still intimidates him some, but really wants to ride it. I waited on Mike at Robinson Road, and we rode back to his turnoff for home together, and I continued on then home rather than extending my ride. (Yes, that means Mike will have me on monthly distance at the end of the day.)

We’ve gotten some recent updates from other riders.  Chip has completed Paris-Brest-Paris (1200k) in just over 79 hours.  Not bad, considering that he had to replace his bike frame during the ride because his cracked.  Cliff seems to be still going, although there are no recent updates since Brest.  He became ill, saw a physician, got medicine, and had to rest.  A DC Randonneur was killed while riding Paris-Brest-Paris.  Thai Pham was hit by a truck and killed.  In other news, Sebastian, who was in an accident a few weeks ago still doesn’t remember even leaving the house.  The police said that a car turned directly into his path and he struck the car, flew through the air 10-15 feet, hit his head, and cracked some bones.  Sebastian is a huge advocate of (1) helmets, (2) Road ID, (3) Flashing front lights.  He expects to be able to go back to work soon.  Neal, who crashed June 1 and shattered his pelvis is slowly recovering.  He is still a few weeks away from load bearing on his legs.  This can be a dangerous sport.