Wow, with two nasty crashes that sent their
victims to the hospital in one week, the Left Lane thought it time to send in a
little bit of humor…with the emphasis on little bit.
The following is his commentary on the Bad Mayo’s
Sunday Afternoon Madness Ride. This short (25 miler) is growing in popularity, especially
for newbies and those wanting an easy spin to recover from Saturday’s harder
efforts. The route is fairly flat and the guys always throw in a sprint or two
just to liven things up a bit. Towards the end, the peloton almost always stops
at either the new stadium or the park at the end of Palafox just to tell
stories and take in the view.(we get to live here!) Anyway, heeeeere’s Left
Lane:
Report of the Sunday Ride of the Twisted & Convoluted
Bad Mayo Loop
A RIDE OF MANY RETURNS:
Well I was finally able to drag the Big Hoagie down from
Pace to ride with the F&S boys again for the first time in several months,
I believe. Also returning after a long
absence was the Retro Man Dave Henderson (is he tiring of riding his
motorcycle?) and Johnny Bugno after a weeks long bout with the flu. And the other return of note were the Left
Lane's Blue Bullitt shoes!!
Stupid Human Tricks
I don't normally wear the Blue Bullitts, although fast,
they tend to wear out my feet. After
riding Saturday in the rain, my normal shoes were soaking wet and around noon
Sunday I checked to see if they had dried...No chance so I quickly came up with
a solution....let them dry in my old gas oven which is always warm with at
least a pilot light on all the time. In
addition every time I walked through the kitchen I would turn the oven on for
around 30 seconds to get the heat up inside without cooking the shoes/inserts
etc. Well the last time I did this I
must of got distracted and not turned off the oven!!
I was out on the front porch cleaning the chain on the
trusty Cervello when I hear my wife start shouting that she thinks she smells
an electrical fire or something and by the time I got inside she had located
the problem...my Diadoras were roasting in the oven. Looking inside my yellow super feet inserts
had been turned into fondue and the shoes were smoking badly. I layed some newspaper on the floor and
pulled everything out of the oven including my gloves and shoe covers which
were all OK but the inserts were completely melted and the plastic strap and
buckle system on the shoes were melted and one buckle which mounted in plastic
had melted off as well...so I went and dug the Blue Bullitts out of the closet.
Enough of Stupid Human Tricks.
The Ride
Hoagie showed up early so we decided to do an around the
Bayou loop and then join the group at Bayview Park. We had a spirited warm up and arrived at the park
with around 9 miles in to find the Bad Mayo, Retro Dave and Johnny Bugno
waiting. I had not seen either Retro or
Bugno in a while it was a ride of Many Returns.
We had an excellent ride following Retro Dave for the
most part for his twist on the Bad Mayo Sunday Loop to the West Side, including
a reverse twinkie, and a boardwalk dash through the swamps behind PJC West and
many other antics.
The Reverse Twinkie win was contested with Big Hoagie
leading the group to the top of the Navy Point Bridge but the Left Lane being
ahead at the line at what was normally the beginning of the bridge in this case
the end of the Bridge. The judges agreed
that the Left Lane was right that if this was truly a Reverse Twinkie Run than
the Left Lane was indeed in front at that point. Sorry Hoagie ...you must participate more
often to know where the Points are won!!!
Of course Bob set the line for the Twinkie prize some time back when he
was ahead at that point and not at the top of the Bridge (the Left Lane
distinctly remembers being ahead at the beginning of the bridge one time with
Bob passing before the top and at that time the Twinkie was awarded at the top
of the bridge....Hmmmm!!).
Well Retro didn't seem to miss a step in his absence from
the peloton as we rode at a spirited pace through every nook and cranny of the
West Side of town and headed down Fairfield toward 98 for the Romp Through The
Swamp. As we turned onto 98 some Avian
Antics were on display as a Hawk swooped down
to buzz a Giant Blue Heron that had been flying along the edge of the
trees to our right. Cool Stuff.
We then went through the campus and onto the Swamp
Boardwalk...If you have never gone across this wooden wonder, be careful. With wooden walls on both sides and many
turns it would be easy to bounce off one of these walls and go down. No incidents though other than to stop
momentarily to ease by a couple walking their dogs in an oncoming direction.
We continued on toward the Barrancas Bridge and the Left
Lane exploded off the front of the pack as we turned out of the Country Club
and toward the Bridge. The Blue Bullitt
clad Left Lane would not be caught this day as the chasers fell off into the
distance (think no one really tried)!!
But a Top of the Bridge first is a Top of a Bridge first nonetheless.
As the Left Lane's gap was quite significant, he pulled
into the ballpark on Main Street and waited for the group to catch up....but as
they came by they headed straight and a Whistling and Screaming Left Lane was
all of a sudden 300-400 yards behind. As
I used the downhill out of the park and back onto Main, a semi-tanker truck
went by, and taking a trick from the Vortex's page the Left Lane who was
already cranking around 25mph drafted the tanker and went sailing by Johnny
Bugno who was a ways back from the other three and reeled them in by Palafox
St, where we slowed at the light. As we
accelerated on the other side of Palafox St here comes the tanker buy us with
none other than Johnny Bugno drafting the silver behemoth and flying buy the
peloton...."The Move of the Day" screamed the Bad Mayo. We hammered
down Bayfront with Retro and the Hoagie doing the work to our afterride
debriefing in Richey's parking lot.
A great ride and around 35 for me and the Hoagie. Good to see Retro, Bugno & Hoagie
again. I am sure it will not be so long
til next time with the Spring Riding Season fast approaching.
These Sunday rides from Bayview are becoming a Group
favorite and the Blue Bullitt Clad and Somewhat Self-Satisfied Left Lane had
quite a comeback from the Prenti Thrashing of the previous week.
But Damn, my feet hurt!!!.. I put the Blue Bullitts back in the closet
and started shopping on-line (unless Stone at Cycle Sports cuts me a deal I
can't refuse) for a new pair Go Fasters!!
The Left Lane
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