For those of you that rode this past weekend, I'm sure you would agree it was three great rides! Saturday was the infamous Gianni Bugno's The Duker Puker. Sunday had the group on a spin around the Manzierre Loop: Home of the Bro. While Monday saw the peloton cruising on the group fave Soundside Loop. Three great days worth of three great rides! I, for one, really enjoyed all three routes. (Who picks these things anyway?!)
WERAD NOTE:
Hey, before I go any further, please note that after discussing tomorrow's UNIRAD with the West Florida Wheelmen, we have decided to postpone our joint group ride with them for a bit. Several of you have expressed that you would not be able to participate because of the earlier start time of 5pm. We will reschedule for sometime in the future with more advance notice so many of you can plan ahead for the earlier start.
Therefore, we will be at Firestone and Summit tomorrow night at 5:30pm for our usual WERAD with our cast of unusual characters!!! (Check the Rides Calendar for details as needed.)
Now to live action...
Huge group last Saturday with several folks we haven't seen in a while...at least not on a bike. We don't name names here but it sure was nice to see Chuck and Sandy Norton out! They are a few of the riders that make it so much fun to get out and ride in this otherwise miserable weather. Well, it wasn't that terrible, just humid I guess...and hot. You know when the sweat doesn't evaporate off your overheating body...yeah it was miserable, to a degree anyway. Regardless, it was a fantastic ride over one of this riders favorite courses. And, to top it all off, no Puker this time around on the Duker! Amazing!
The ride was pretty much uneventful until we hit the last 3 kilometers or so. (Gratefully no Happy Unhappy Mishap or HUM) The pace had quickened a bit as we rode down Langley and made the turn onto Spanish. Most everybody was feeling a bit worse for the wear as we made the final right hander onto Maygarden itself. There had been several albeit short pulls until Earl "Semper Cy" Page took over the duties at the front. (Earl is not related to the Pensacola News Journal writer Jamie Page, who wrote that wonderful article in last Sunday's Coastal Life section regarding cycling in our area. If you haven't read it yet, check it out! Very informative and complimentary of our group and the WFW as well. Really enjoyed it. Thanks so much Jamie!!!)
Back to live action...
Semper Cy pulled from about 2k to go all the way up to the final sprint. The man had the bit between the teeth. However, as his suicide pull was about out of fuel around the 400 meters to go sign, out of nowhere comes charging down the left side like the big Clydesdale that he is, Tim "Crusher" Fox out of the saddle with head down throwing his machine like a dog pulling on a chew toy! Lawman jumps hard to get on Crusher's wheel with the Vortex trying to latch onto the Lawman. With less than 300m to the line, (this after a hot 50+ miles in the saddle) Lawman moves to the right to launch his sprint. He and Crusher are heads down and eyes blurred surging for the line. (I just love this kind of stuff!) Lawman gets the advantage on Crusher with less than 100m to go and eases up on the pedals. Just then, out of nowhere on the extreme right comes the Vortex in a massive gear. With less than 50m they are even and at the line, Vortex nips Lawman by no more than half a bike length. Fantastic finish...and good fun!
Sunday's classic route looking for the Home of the Bro saw a much smaller peloton including a couple of group favorite's Trish "The Kat" Kuhnell and Gianni Bugno as well as a couple of new faces Tom Horn and Nestor Arquea. The ride was taken at an easy pace with our usual stop at the end of Palafox to take in the view and fill the bottles. Great recovery ride.
The Soundside Loop was on tap for yesterday's ride. We had a good group of fairly evenly matched riders, so the pace was fast. (18.3mph average) In fact, I was home before 10am! Great ride and pretty much uneventful except for Semper Cy taking the rest stop sprint. Atta boy Earl!
Fantastic weekend of riding! I had over 130 miles. Don't worry if you missed them. We're riding again tomorrow night. Yeppers, 5:30pm at Firestone and Summit for the weekly WERAD! Come on out and don't miss a single mile of the latest peloton antics! See you tomorrow night. And, as always, I'll...
See you out on the road,
Bob
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