Nice Day For a Metric

Diana, one of the riders in our little back channel C pace group during the shutdown/slowdown times of Corona, has been wanting to push a bit longer in distance. We rode 50 miles last Saturday and today I posted a metric century (62 miles) which a total of 6 riders went on.  The forecast for overcast all day was 100% wrong. It was gorgeously sunny, but also warmed to a very summer-like 86 F before we were done. It was humid and I was conscious of the need to drink a LOT of fluid today. I left the house with (2) 22 oz bottles and a 50 oz Camelbak. I drank all that today and then some.

The ride itself was good.  No dogs anywhere, mostly decent pavement and mostly decent drivers. It was flats and rollers except for a long hill with 2 steeper sections and 2 shallower at the very end of the ride. Depending on whose GPS you want to believe, we climbed 1330', 1550', 1631', or 1825' (from memory, so +/-)  Still, not hard on the climbing. Our pace was decent throughout.  We slowed in a couple of neighborhoods that we went through, but were cruising on Northern Blvd at about 18, which is spiffy for me.

We had a great food stop at the Eastchase Shopping Center. Curbside only at Panera, but several had the app and ordered while we sat in the shade at their tables.  3 of us went 2 doors down to Zoe's.  I enjoyed the basil pesto hummus with pita.  We were 40 miles in at that point and a mite peckish. Other store stops along the way afforded brief rests and refills as needed of water bottles, or bathroom facilities.  I refilled my Camelbak with water at Zoe's.

Just as we approached our turn off Northern Blvd onto Coliseum Blvd/AL River Pkwy, I saw Theo standing next to his bike.  He had a flat. I stayed with him while he changed it. That involved a tire lever snapping on him, and some work to remove and replace his disk brake wheel. (No quick release with that).  He finished the repair and headed off and pfffffpppptttt, flat again. We had just turned the corner and found our group waiting. 2 had to go on, but 3 of us stayed with Theo.  Diana scanned the tire and found a wire sticking in the tread which she was able to extract. Then 3 people who have CO2 tire fill devices, but haven't used them much tried to re-inflate the tire. That was a hoot. CO2 was sprayed around the tire.  A blast of it exploded a tube. It partially filled the 3rd tube, but then all of it escaped as they tried to get it aired up all the way. By this time, Theo was ready to hand me the wheel, with the tire not on the rim quite right either. I took the opportunity to suggest to Brannon, Diana and Theo, that practicing with CO2 fillers in their own driveway with relaxing beverage of choice at hand was really a good idea. Trying to ken it out roadside while bent over and dripping sweat is tougher.  I pulled out the trusty frame pump and pumped up the tire. I did catch my pinkie in the pump while working it briskly and got a blood blister, which served me right for finding everything so amusing. It held air and we were off again.

Congrats to Theo on his first metric century! To Diana for a strong ride, and to Brannon for finishing well.  Rick and Mitch were done ahead of us, but they're B riders and we expected that. It still always nice to have them along on a ride.  I had a decent avg going into that last stupid hill, but dropped from 15+ to 14.6 on the climb. What was I thinking when I ended this route that way? Oh yeah, the challenge is good.