Sometimes
Riding alone.
At night.
Can be as scary as you want it to be.
It’s relatively easy to talk your mind into a fury of b-movies and rancid animal attacks.
Start. Black Bull Parking lot, 17:31.
Evidentially, alone.
At least it’s still 8c.
Target. Palgrave, 19:00.
Group ride.
Point to point blacktop. 13km.
Point to point with points and points betwixt.
Significantly more then 13km.
Click Me: I'm awesome!
Leg #1 went very well.
Conditions were pristine with patches of wonderful.
Plans to ride the entire trail system to the Palgrave start were…misguided at best.
Genius at worst.
That is, despite my best effort at a break neck elite-like pace (see image above) I could only net 15km of singletrack (+-) in the first 60 minutes.
At that mid-point, there was another 15-20km of singletrack remaining.
Of which my knowledge was significantly hampered.
By hampered what I actually mean is, I would be forced to ride the remainder while looking about for infrequent and unpredictable single white paint blotches on the bark of rapidly passing trees.
Trees that I would essentially rather avoid.
The alternate selected (and subsequently remaining) road/trail combination was going to be 11km.
It was a route utilized by many a cyclist traversing from Bolton to Albion.
At 110rpm and a gear ratio of 32:19 I quickly considered the externals; wind velocity, camel bak drag, air/road temperature, tire selection, barometric pressure and my abnormally honed sense of momentum.
A few scraps of paper later I spewed forth my conclusion, the remainder could be covered in just under 30 minutes.
No, Click Me: I'm MORE Awesome!
Leg #2 went almost as well as Leg #1.
Disappointed as I was not to be riding singletrack, the riding was actually quite fine.
The temperature was dropping. Dropping as one might expect it to in mid-November.
One whom wasn’t expecting it not to that is.
Being unenclosed by greenature and moving at the more rapidish pace both combined with the mercury drop (0 c and declining) to make several portions, somewhat slightly less enjoyable.
Fast forward…
Arrived in time for the group start.
The group rode.
I warmed up some.
Four bodies became losted.
Warmed up some more.
Considered the return to Bull route.
Exchanged my diSSent (Fe) for a 26″ singlespeed.
With suspension fork.
Realized quickly that the 29″ wheels were compensating for actual talent.
Talent of which I am devoid.
Considered another return to Bull route.
Feeling began returning to several toes.
The feeling was not the kind of feeling I would describe as a ‘nice’ feeling.
Negotiated a drive to the Black Bull.
Proceeded to consumed more calories then burned.
3:44 worth of saddle time.
46km +-
Done in November.
At night.
Victory!
November 18th, 2009 at 18:06
Riding Winter WOW Sunday? Looks to be a warm one…
November 18th, 2009 at 23:26
Peter, of all the things you are devoid of TALENT is not one of them.
I myself had a challenging evening putting a Christmas schedule together with 3 beers two rum and cokes and other unmentionables. To be flying through single track rappidly between white painted trees would have been nice too. Got a good ride into work this morning. Strong head wind and two assholes I had it out with when I caught them at the light. I was riding off the night before so pretty good fire in the belly.
b
November 19th, 2009 at 01:11
logging off due to company.
November 19th, 2009 at 19:51
as high as the highs go, the lows go low. apres delstalk has left me down and lonely. i sat at home alone and cried on tuesday night.