2009 cycling blog

Although this route always has riders on it, Thursday is the big ride day.  As with previous Thursday rides, I rolled out ahead of the main pack...those guys are too fast for me. Rolling out ahead of the pack leaves me constantly thinking of someone behind me, sizing me up to be overtaken.  I've had the fast pack overtake me before and it's not fun.  I was wondering IF, WHEN and WHERE they may catch me.  I saw many riders riding in the opposite direction, heading toward the start or toward the pack with plans to catch on as they came by.  I thought with my head start, they should catch me near the end and I should be able to catch on for a fast pull for maybe the last few miles.  Also in my thoughts were the ominous, grey clouds that looked to dump buckets of rain on me at any time.  By mile eight,  I was also overtaken by a solo rider.  He rode by, said hello and I jumped on his wheel for a little pull.  He was a big fella riding a Strock 0.9 or something like that.  H

Rode out from my house to the Silver Comet trail.  10 miles to the trail, 22 miles on the trail then Old Lost Mountain Road to my Tour de W. Cobb route.   For the most part, I was pretty much just seeking some saddle time.  I like the comet because there are other riders to watch, other people watching opportunities and because it's flat, there is no rest, you have to keep your crank turning all the time. Once off the Comet and onto Old Lost Mountain Road, I came across a few Garage Sales.  I wheeled into a few of them but didn't see anything that I just couldn't live with out but enjoyed the diversions.    I started this ride in the early morning and with a chill in the air, I dressed accordingly with wind pants, shoe covers and long sleeve undershirt and long sleeve jersey.  At this point in the ride I was ok but as the ride wore on, it got warmer and I could feel the sweat under my layers. I took a diversion off my normal route from Mars Hill Road to Hancock Road which r

Well, Tiger putted out on 18 so I thought...now I ride. I had a hard time getting going today and rolled out at 5:30 pm.  There were other rides I could have joined this morning and enjoyed that "group ride thing" but, hey, some people have stuff that has to be done and I had many chores today. So how was the ride?  Well, pretty ordinary, same as many other rides on this route.   This ride did feature a new piece of gear...I recently installed one of those light weight inner tubes on my rear wheel.  In the bike shop I could tell the difference in weight between the regular tube and the light weight model.  I remember someone telling me about reducing the weight of rolling mass, something about resistance  Anyway, this is supposed to make me ride better...who knows. I tried to maintain a steady pace and was doing pretty well at 17.2 mph through Mars Hill Rd. and onto Stillesboro but those hills on Stillsboro took a toll on me and the pace dropped. Rolled in with a 16.5 mph avg