The Calm before the storm 

Icicle...

Today was White Clay Bicycle clubs annual Icicle Metric Century (66 miles)
I have done this ride 4 times now, (many other times but not in an organized setting). Every year we seem to find a way to go a little faster that the year before. Today was no different. There are riders of every ability at this event, I enjoy seeing the Fat guy who rides once a month on the $7000.00 bike as well as the regular guy in jeans and a sweatshirt riding his comfort bike. There is always a good turn out from our little community. Today we had 2 groups head out. Andrew took the B group with Ted Logic, Gwen, Fitzy, L Web, Jeb Bagger, Tom McD, John Thompson, Rob and his wife(Beans riders), and a few other folks. Our group was Slick Rick, K Man, Single Speed Dan, Spot Paul, Kurtee, Fort James, Wayne Scott, and myself.

We rolled out pretty fast right at the start and my legs felt like lead weights, it took about an hour for them to feel better. The pace was very fast the whole time. Some folks decided to ride a bit more civilized. We caught on to Mark Wise and his little group, this was great. Mark pulled us a long at 25 miles an hour for 20 miles. Thanks Mark. I was feeling better but I knew the hard part was yet to come. The Landeburg section of this loop is always tough. Spot Paul slipped off the back a couple of times, only to fight his way back on. He even said to me giving in and letting us go wasn't an option.

We rolled into the finish in 3:30 with an avg. speed of 19.2. This was by far the fastest I have ever done the loop. We even did a little cool down ride which tacked on another 6 miles or so. I just hope I have something left for Granogue tomorrow.

Rock Out,
Buddy

What Else Can Go Wrong?

Last night I showed up for the Downingtown ride for the first time in a couple of weeks. I was looking forward to nice dry trails, since I don't think I have ever ridden there when it was totally dry. All the usual suspects were out. The ride was going great until we hit a section that somebody tried to block off. We quickly went around and were flying down the hill. On the way down Bob flatted, at the bottom we found out that Chris, Ben and Ryan also flatted. I don't think it was a coincidence. After a while we were rolling again. I was having fun and feeling pretty good, and props to Bob on his secret squirrel training because he was flying last night. The next victim was Mark who flatted, then Rob's light died. Not long after that Rick broke a chain and Craig crashed hard on his shiny new Seven 29er single speed.
We finally seemed to get going again when Big Ben broke his bottom bracket, he was left holding his drive side crank in his hand.

At least the beer was good. By the way only two of us had no issues, Sean and myself, and we were both on Spot Brand 29er single speeds. What does that tell you.

Rock Out,
Buddy

taking a little break 

overlook 

A View From the Top...

Today was one of those days where you just wanted to keep riding. Sure my legs were a little tired but the weather, the trails and the people were awesome today.

Fuzzy led us on a really fun loop around Elk Neck, with fatmac, Kurtee, Alan and myself in tow we had a blast. Everybody is riding well right now, which kept the ride moving the whole time. After we hit everything once, Kurtee and Alan called it quits. Marc, Fuzzy and I went out for another loop. The big difference was fatmarc took the lead, which upped the pace a little. I didn't mind because I felt pretty good. I love riding Elk Neck and I hope we get back there a few more times before the spiders and chiggers take over.

later,
Buddy