Beginning the ride together
Distance 46 miles\
max speed 29 mph
ave speed 14 mph
Time in saddle 3:18
Paul always talks about his group and how fast they ride. He doesn't like it but keeps up. We were originally going to have 7 of us on this 50 mile ride to Buzzards Bay, in Massachusetts. Three bagged out so four of us set off on what was supposed to be a mild ride. Brandon, Dave and I have been riding regularly the past few weeks. We have done lots of hill work and built up our skills enough that we can clip along at a really good pace.
The four of us stayed together for the first few miles of this ride, but once we began to loosen up, we started to ride at our own comfortable speed. Someone is always way out front in many small group rides, someone is in the middle and someone lags. If you ride you know that as long as there is someone behind you, it doesn't matter how far ahead anyone else is. But if your the one who falls behind, that really sucks. Paul got that honor today and we don't think he liked it very much.
Every time we ride the lead rider eventually stops and waits for the second rider, who waits for the next and so on till we all are together again. None of us will ever drop another rider in our group for the day. We should have told Paul this before we set off, but we didn't have any idea how much our training had improved us.
At around mile 18 we stopped and looked back for Paul. Dave said, "I saw him a couple of miles back." We waited, and waited until Brandon our young CAT 2 rider doubled back to find him. We started to worry that something had happened to his bike, a flat or chain failure. Paul thought we took a side road to a coffee shop and went there. Brandon found him and led him back to our group.
We took a break for a light lunch and coffee at mile 24 of our ride in Buzzards Bay. We rode on the Cape Cod Canal MUP for a couple of miles before the return leg of the ride.
amidnightrider sends his greeting.
Lunch at Dunkin Donuts in Buzzards Bay, MA.
There seemed to be a theme to today's ride.
On the return leg we spread out again with the distance between each of us gradually increasing over an 8 mile sprint. We gathered together again and rode the final 17 miles home together.
The point. We start together and end together. In between, it's dog eat dog.
Paul hasn't been riding and it showed in spades today. We will keep inviting him and we all know that within two or three weeks he will be right with us and may move into third place behind Brandon and me.
Ending the ride together
P.S. It also sucks to have your boat break down in the fast moving waters of the Canal
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