FLCC> Sunday Rides Notes

[John Dennis]

True to being the first Sunday ride of summer, the Dryden Lake ride took
place under warm Sunday weather-our first it seemed-and with the usual
layers of Ithaca centripedality.  OK, that's not really a word, but you know
what I mean: pedaling outwards from Ithaca in a somewhat unbridled mix of
exuberance, speed, and directions.   The rear guard consisted of Anne
Shapiro who left East Hill Plaza early and was later passed by everyone on
Ellis Hollow Creek Road or on Ringwood.  I was inconsiderate enough to query
her on some points of finance on the very steepest portion of Ringwood.
Bringing up the rear in front of Anne, were then Eva Tarcsai, Tom Sage,
Misty McPhee, and myself.  Eva informed us that Jason did survive the
hypothermic ride to Odessa last week despite wearing few clothes and that he
had opted to camp in PA this past weekend. As we came east on Midline, we
spotted and called out to Jack Ruckheim and Ernie Bayles heading west, about
to finish a morning ride at Jack's house on Ringwood.  On the way to Dryden,
Misty discussed the biologist and ultra-marathoner, Bernd Heinrich, an
emeritus professor at the University of Vermont who wrote Ravens in Winter
and the Snoring Bird.  

 

Arriving at the Dryden Post Office, we found that the troops had already
deployed westward.  According to Gary Hodges, Wayne Gottlieb had a flat
(close to Dryden?) and ,subsequently, Gary, Wayne, and Jim Millar rode back
on Harwood Road along the posted 40-mile course.  There remained a
break-away group that decided to stretch the course out to Virgil and back.
If my feeble powers of deduction serve me, this layer consisted of Peter
Shoemaker, Don Tenkate, Ruth Sherman, Dave Miller (visiting from Mn), Don
Smith, Stuart Wolsh, Ben Gray (doubtless one of the proponents along with
Ruth for more miles), Paul Freemantle, Vanessa McCaffrey, Mike Richter, and
Bobby Nunnick.  For some, including Bobby, Vanessa, and Ruth, the extra
miles were needed so they could unwind from having raced at the Corning
Technology Park the day before.   Some folks just can't get enough cycling.


 

I'm of course reluctant to admit that there is ever anything unpleasant
about cycling, but my "group of four" did have one of those legendary
cyclist-motorist encounters.  As we proceeded up-hill on that section of
Shutt Road  that has just passed between two Cornell sheep pastures and
entered a more tree-lined section with a sheep pasture remaining on the
right, I heard Misty shout  from about 50-75 yards behind me.  I didn't look
back but within a few seconds a tan cable installation van with racks on the
roof passed within 12 inches of me as I rode single-file on the far right of
the road.  The same driver had buzzed Misty (and the other two?) who were
also riding single-file on the right.  I then yelled as loud as I could, but
failed to induce the driver to pull over and discuss his approach to Sunday
driving.  I made a mental note to try to get the driver cited for reckless
endangerment if we should later get his license plate info.  But we didn't
see him again. Maybe we should make a practice of having one or two bikes on
each ride equipped with a live video-camera on the front?  That way we can
"run the tape" after this sort of incident and hopefully have a plate number
and vehicle details to refer to.  Which reminds me, I still need to pay a
"safe speed photo radar" speeding citation kindly mailed to me from
Montgomery County, MD.  In addition to the NYS plate numbers, you can read
both the Obama and the End This War bumper stickers.  "Payment of the
penalty amount for the violation will not result in points and cannot be
used to increase your insurance rates."   Thanks, MD!

 

Ride safe,   John

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://icycle.org/pipermail/flcc_icycle.org/attachments/20080527/821df06a/attachment.html