Sat. 7/19/08

We had 11 riders for the Saturday ride (Racing Bruce, Dr. Tim, Tim B., Big Al, Jeff S., Trevor, Mark, Jim T., Jeff G., and Mr. Steve). We decided to head east (the direction, not the band). So out of town on cty 9 to Whitewater Park. The pace was nice a civil with everyone taking turns at the front. Just a slight headwind on the way out. Dr. Tim and Jeff G. had to get back early, so they turned back just before we turned north into Whitewater. I had heard that the road leading into Whitewater had been redone. I heard wrong... It looks like they may still fix up the road, but not yet. After some whiteknuckle riding into Whitewater, Trevor and I led out for the town sprint sign, when here comes Jeff blowing past us. Trevor and Mark jumped on his wheel, with Bruce chasing hard. I think Trevor edged out Mark for the sign. We stopped for some water at the little store and decided to continue north out of the valley. This stretch still has some gravel sections and on one of them Bruce decided to get a closer look. Just a few scrapes on his knee and some bruises on his ego. After a nice paced climb out of the valley, we headed for Plainview. No sign to sprint for (bummer, I was all set to go). We stopped again for water (by now it was starting to heat up and everyone needed to stay hydrated. We went south out of Plainview, past the golf course, then we turned west on cty 23 (or 24) to Elgin. At Elgin, Jeff surprised us all by getting the town sign (right around the corner). We continued south out of Elgin and headed for cty 11. Again, everyone took turns at the front and the pace was nice and steady. We turned south on cty 11 and headed for Rochester. Viola Road is closed at Century High School, so we continued south on cty 11. After the long climb, there was still some spunk in some legs so the group split a bit as the spunky ones beat up on each other all the way to cty 9. Trevor and I continued south, while the rest turned west on cty 9 and headed into town.

Great ride guys. I finished with almost 70 miles and I had to wash all my gear because it was all soaked in sweat)...

Oh Yeah, *** Offical Steve Sighting ***