Memorial Day Ride

(Very late post...completely forgot to submit)

So Julia, my wife, says to me,"How'd you get that scratch on your back?" I laughed and replied, "Ron did it." She nodded nonchalantly, "He must be a good friend...."

It was a beautiful Memorial day morning when I arrived at North Windham school to head out for the ride.
Joe cruised in shortly afterwards. We talked beer jersey stuff (my favorite apparel) and soon after the rest of the crusaders arrived.

The A and B groups took off into Colchester. We started out with Joe, Eric, Chris, Ed, Phil, Dave, Amanda, and myself. Amanda was sporting her sexy new machine, and she looked way too comfortable on it. I think her fitting went very well.

Somewhere before we descended onto Route 207, we caught up with the B group. I am not sure why we "caught up with them", because I thought we were following the same roads and left ahead of them.

So as I passed my riding buddy, Ron, it is typical to offer a pat on the back, or some other gesture to let him know that I'm passing him and that I care about his safety. So, I goosed him.

Mildly shocked, since he probably hasn't had that happen on a ride in a while, he barked out a "Hey!!!". I continued to jam along 207 until we turned onto the road with the goat (who was recently "sent to the farm"- not sure if that is a happy ending), when I felt something grab my backside. At first I thought "Goat attack??", then I heard Eric A. say, "Your going to get in trouble with your group..." I heard Ron's voice say," I know...But this is why you wear bibs..." And then proceeded to pull my non-bib shorts past the point of the worst plumber's situation.

I guessed I asked for that and Ron and I chuckled when we caught up with each other at the store next to Starbucks in Colchester.

The 2 groups splintered again as we darted into the Hopyard. We had an opportunity to motorpace behind a car all the way through. It was very intense but exciting. I think Phil said we averaged around 30mph, but I kept both eyes on the car and hands on the brakes.

As we exited DHY, we proceeded onto Rt. 82 and turned left after 3.5 miles. I won't forget this next turn for a long time. We hit a wall called Brush Hill Rd. Steep and long and Eric said it had a part 2 as it plateaued then kept going up. We all hunkered down and slowly made my way to the top. We waited until everyone regrouped at the summit, then continued down, down, down Mount Archer. Scary steep; I felt I was on a roller coaster ride and I held my brakes all the way to the bottom- if I didn't, I'd be over 50 mph and in the hospital.

I eventually regrouped with the rest and we pacelined into Old Lyme where we watched the parade for 20 minutes. Lots of shiny fire trucks- lots of them. They must have a lot of fires in Old Lyme.

We found an ice cream shop where we ordered sandwiches. I inhaled as fast as I could and offered my chips to Eric. He looked really hungry still and I needed to fatten him up/slow him down (he was sprinting for town lines and got them all except for one- thanks, Joe).

The rest of the ride was lots of pace lines and good team work.

It was fun to have that synergy to make the ride seem to go by so quickly.

Thank you to Eric and Joe for setting a manageable pace, and everyone else for good camaraderie. 95 miles (Eric and Dave stretched it for additional 5 or so- my cramping legs said enough). 17.7 mph and 5048 ft. of climbing (my legs knew that already).

Christian