FLCC> Texas Hollow Ride Notes

[John Dennis]

We had a great turn-out today and not a cloud in the sky.  

Andrejs Ozolin turned out as did Sam Kolins, Anna Sapozhinkova, Jim McGarry,
Wayne Gottlieb, Scott Penner, Vanessa Ann McCaffery, Mark Sorrells, Louis
McDonald, Kurt Lavetti, Eva Tarcsai, Jason Stilwell, Mike Richter, Ruth
Sherman, Steve Bowman, Mark Sheehan, Jim Millar, David Sahn, Charles
Dietrich, Kyra Stephanoff, Francis Steen, Jerry Licht, Randy Olsen, Richie
Berg, and Amelia Habicht.   Apologies to anyone I may have missed!

We departed by 9:15am from the Professional Building.  As we were heading
due west on Iradell Road, I was riding near the back with Mike Richter, Ruth
Sherman, and -if I recall correctly-Steve Bowman when we spotted a rider
walking east on the left hand shoulder.  Randy Olsen explained that he had
had a flat and his house was "only about two miles away."   Mike and I
suggested fixing the flat and Randy admitted to being new to cycling and not
having a clear idea of how this was done.  He also admitted to having
recently bought his ancient Raleigh multi-speed-I'm guessing 14 speeds-on
e-Bay for $100.  He had then shown the bike which came in the mail with flat
tires--to Bike Rack Gary who reportedly exclaimed "All they need is air."
It was apparently nearing the end of the work day, but I worry that BR Gary
may be losing his famous entrepreneurial edge.  

Perhaps you can recall that old style tire that came with cream or
tan-colored sidewalls made of gum arabica-or wait, am I thinking of Gutta
Percha-that intrepid material that Egyptians allegedly used to fill cavities
several thousand years ago?  In any case, the sidewalls of Randy's two tires
were in an advanced state of decay, resembling a crumbling papyrus
manuscript just lifted from King Tut's tomb.  What was BR Gary thinking we
wondered?  The tread portion of Randy's rear tire had balded down to the
fabric in three or for places.  Randy mentioned wistfully that he'd never
been on a 50-mile ride before, so we took leave of common sense and decided
to give it the old college try.  Mike and I put a new tube into his back
tire.  I had one tire liner in my pack, but it was one of those, "where
would you start?" situations.  Soon after we resumed the ride, we met David
Sahn who was heading east,  "returning to base."  

As we were by then a good 10-15 minutes behind the lead group, Randy
suggested that rather than follow the course route south to Mecklenberg and
west on busy Rte 79, that we turn north and then head west on the less hilly
and less traffic-laden CR 222.  This provided an enjoyable ride and soon
after turning south onto Texas Hollow Road, we caught sight of Richie Berg
and Andrejs not far ahead.  Tire marks in the dirt indicated that the
thundering lead herd had already proceeded us.  The full canopy of this road
makes it well worth the portions of dirt road.  And more of it was
bitumened-lightly macadamed-than last year.  Goldfinches were frequent in
the open field portions and life was good.  But then Randy complained of a
soft front tire. So we stopped and pumped it up.  Alas, by the sharp
downhill on the way into Odessa, Randy's front tire had packed it in.  But
it was nothing a fresh tube at the Odessa refueling stop-kindly donated by
Mike R.--couldn't handle. 

I did learn on this ride that Ruth and Steve are in training to participate
in pactour's 19-day Ridge of the Rockies ride which starts on July 28th in
Kalispell, Montana and which ends 1,943 miles and 88,000 feet of climbing
later in El Paso, Texas.  Ruth had ridden from home in West Danby today so
as to get in about 85 miles today.  Quickly doing the math, that will be
doing a century every day in mostly mountainous terrain for almost three
weeks.  Wow!!  I hope they serve good chow in the evenings. 

Speaking of long rides, I happened to check today to see how (click
<http://stats.raceacrossamerica.org/2008/reports/overview.html>  here) Steve
Bugbee, a guy that Dan Barbasch and I rode with in May-well, rode with in
the dark along the Hudson River for 50-some miles before he went off the
front during the Lake Placid 400km brevet---had done in this year's Race
Across America (RAAM).  I see that Steve got 1122 miles into the race before
being disqualified for not keeping up with the "finish in less than 12 days"
pace.  That pace is about 250 miles every day!  On the day we rode with him,
he had not slept for 24 hours as he was doing his sleep deprivation training
while riding a RAAM qualifier.  Browsing on this site, I see that poor
Caroline van den Bulk got within 55 miles of Annapolis, Maryland-the
finish-before she was disqualified for not staying the pace.  Maybe there is
something to be said for just signing up with Pactours and letting them put
you in a sag wagon if you start having problems keeping up on any given day.
This year's RAAM winner finished in 27 minutes short of 9 days!  So what is
9 into 3014?  A blistering 335 miles a day!  They now require a minimum of
20 hours of sleep, so the winner was averaging 14 mph before factoring in
any sleep or refueling not to mention massage and the application of copious
amounts of sun block and bag balm, though not in the same places.  

Back to today's 47-mile ride, I was plugging along near the back when I
overshot the right turn off  the Cayutaville Road.  Sam Kolins and Amelia
Habicht called me back.  And it turned out that the lead group had done the
same thing but hadn't heard Ruth calling them back.  So a very strung out
rear guard had a new chance to move up in the polls. Thanks to Mike, Ruth,
Jim Millar, and Mark Sheehan (the middle group)-waiting near the top of
Connecticut Hill, we regrouped for the speedy descent down into the Treman
Park watershed.  Miraculously, the real lead group (among them Vanessa,
Wayne, Gary, Jim McGarry, Mark Sorrells, and Louis McDonald caught back up
to us on Van Dorn Road and most of us rode back as a large group, with
Francis Steen (our youngest rider) and her mom, Kyra Stepanoff, finishing
near or in the final lead pack as well. Well done, Francis!! 

Thanks to Eva Tarcsai, Jason Stilwell and Andrejs for helping to sweep the
back of the ride. Speaking for myself, that's enough to keep you on your
feet. 

Ride safe,  John

 

 

 

 

 

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