Marshal and I pulled out of Toga and passed John C. having his morning and coffee at the Runcibal Spoon.
John caught up with us just as we hit 9W and we formed the “A” group. At exit 4 we formed a tight pace line and John “volunteered” pull us down to the Bike Shop. It seemed as though every traffic light we hit was red, causing a quite a few stops.
We passed a group of riders stopped to change a flat and flew by them, since the appeared to have everything under control.
We took a break at the Bike shop and the B group caught up with us along with Julie, Adrianna and a few of their friends. Turns out they were the group we passed. They stopped to fix Julie’s flat. We pointed her to the floor pump to top off her tire and quickly heard a pop. She had a large cut in the sidewall and had to buy a new tires at Strictly Bicycles. A reminder to carry cash and a credit card, you never know when an expensive repair will pop-up
We headed towards River Road with the B group.Lots of people were out enjoying the wonderful weather. Avoiding them was more challenging than the hills. I pushed it a little up the last hill and took the Polka Dot Jersey. Marshal, Rena and John arrived shortly after me.
As we were catching our breath John announced he had to be back at toga in ½ hour so the 4 of us headed out planning to push it a little. We hit 9W and John turned it up a notch. Marshal Rena and I held tight, a fast double pace line went by and John grabbed on. I said what the heck and followed John's lead. John and I flew down 9W we made it to Tallman in less than 15 minutes.
We took it easy through Piermont and back to Toga. Marshall and Rena came in just behind us.
Our stats for the day: 40.8 miles Elevation 2619. Average 15.1 mph
A big thanks to John for pulling us most of the way and pushing Marshal and I to our limits.
Mike
“A” Ride Leader
