Going to the dogs..

That's about what Jack said we should call our Saturday ride this weekend. They (the dogs) were out in bunches. We put Sammy out in front and he tired them enough to where we didn't have too much trouble with them. A troika of them cornered Jack just past the Volunteer Fire Dept on Brady Rd, but his serious, "Go Home!!" drove them away. Sammy decided to join us for the more relaxed cruise and rolled out one of the bikes from his racing days. Here it is, some fast Italian steel!





I also learned from Sammy that the correct pronunciation is Gwer-Cha-tee. As long as he was out in front doing dog decoy, we were good with that. Note the period correct saddle and the Coca-Cola water bottles.


Roger (NTCP) came out to ride as well, but had a shoe problem and turned back when it was clear to him that he wasn't going to be able to enjoy the ride. I think we've all shown up at a ride and realized that we needed something that we forgot to pack. The rest of us managed to truck on. We had headwinds all the way out, but the tailwind on the return was nice. It was also uphill most of the way out and downhill on the way back. Jack meant to take a picture of us as we sped down one of the hills, but held the button down and ended up with a little video. I'd post it except that I don't know yet how to do videos on Blogspot. (Update! I may have figured it out...)



I went out again today for a "beginners" ride. None of the beginners who requested the ride showed up, but 3 other riders did and we set out to do a relaxer ride. For some reason, I just couldn't get my legs to work right. I struggled to pull the line at 12 mph! The headwind was not that strong and I wondered if I was getting sick or something.

I turned back after 2 1/2 miles and it was work to get back to the car. Only there, when I climbed off the bike did I notice that a not-snug-enough quick release had allowed the rear wheel to shift. My tire had been rubbing the chainstay the whole way. Once I fixed that, the bike pedaled with ease. D'oh!! Now I felt pretty strong, as it was like riding a trainer stand with the tension all the way up.

I have high hopes that my legs will be fine for next week as Dave H and I do the Cochran GA ride.

Tailwinds!