Wed. 5/7/08

Hit the Wednesday Eric's ride again. There were 8 riders this week (Marty, Jim, Sam, Todd, Tom, Al, Corbin and myself). With the stiff NNE winds (20+ mph), we decided to use the Douglas trail north out of town. That way we got a nice shelter from the winds. Once we got to Pine Island, we decided to tack on the Roscoe loop. What a beautiful stretch of road! We had a nice pace going until Tom took off for the Roscoe sign (which he won, closely followed by Sam, Jim, and Al). Even though it was a brown sign, I guess we'll count it. We turned south at Roscoe and continued a nice steady pace. I think Todd wanted to go faster, but Marty cracked the whip and Todd had to obey. We continued south when we got to cty 11, then we turned east on cty 24 (and into some head-cross winds). Tom (again) launched as we got close to the county sign. Jim and I went with, but were too far back to close the gap in time. As we got close to PI, the pace picked up on the climb, we then regrouped just in time for the sprinters to attack the PI town sign. I'm not sure who actually won it as I turned south on cty 3 while they faught it out. We regrouped (again) and headed south on cty 3. We made our way toward Douglas, where (you guessed it) the sprint was on. Jim and I had Sam and Tom marked, so when Sam launched I went with. Al followed and pulled around, so I jumped on his wheel. When he was out of gas I went around to go for the sign, but I was too far from the sign and out of the corner of my eye I see Todd (in full aero position) steaming by with Marty smartly tucked on his back wheel. Unfortunately, Marty won the final sign sprint. So we had to listen to him crowing about his sprinting prowess all the way into town. We hit the Douglas trail for the final stretch back to Eric's. As we got closer to town we noticed a couple riding up ahead. We were rolling along at around 21 mph and the gap was coming down pretty fast, when the guy must have noticed us coming. I won't mention the club jersey he was wearing, but the initials were P.C., anyway as he turned up the pace the wife or girlfriend (soon to be ex-wife or ex-girlfriend) began falling off the back. It was interesting to watch the "race" mentality overtake this guy while riding on the Douglas trail. Just enjoy the ride, buddy. Anyway, we turned off the trail as we got to 41st street and headed back to Eric's. I hope the P.C. guy slowed down for his significant other...

Here's our route:



Great ride everyone.

BTW, I then had to tack on another 10 miles to home as the sun was fast going down.

Also, no sign of Steve (maybe he was wearing the P.C. jersey?).