April 22, 2009

  • Rist Canyon Loop

    Time to join Gale's crew for another ride.   My legs are not as tired as last time, but I have not forgotten my lessons learned from that last G-ride.  So I  figured I would take the lighter bike, but didn't pack "race" light as some folks did! 

    The crew was meeting at JJ's and I was a bit late as usual, but they waited for me.  Partially my fault, but there was this detour which killed a few minutes.   I guess there were about 12 folks or so.  I guess you can count the folks in the photos.  Of those that I can remember,  Ron, Dave, Bruce, Carl, Peter, Ilka, Jerry, Teddy? and that's about as good as my memory gets. 

    We decide to do the hogbacks and folks are more or less civil with the pace.   My goal was to do as little as possible "MRE"  Minimum required Effort for the early climbs and save the legs for Rist.   Folks were pretty frisky up front, but they waited for us stragglers so it was all good.   Interesting, how depending upon who shows up how the ride is colored!

    Finally we make it too Bellevue and onto the climb.   I knew I wouldn't be able to stay with the Big Men, but I figured I would try and ride some of their earlier pace.   I was able to ha ng for a bit, but  decided that if I tried to go when the tempo increased that I would be cooked in minutes.  

    I found myself riding with Bruce for a bit and  Ilka was pretty close too.   I got shelled from this little group after some back and forth position exchanges.  Just having a 38 x 23 just wasn't enough to cut it without tons of matches being burned. so it was back to MRE when the pitches changed for the worse. 

    Finally to the summit after lots of suffering on the switchbacks.   The legs and knees were OK,  but  I could have used the extra gears.    It was a really pretty climb with all of the snow and the view from the summit was refreshing.   Everyone was waiting for the stragglers, but decided to go before everyone was up, because folks were getting chilled.

    The run down the backside or Rist was kinda chilly!  Folks were kinda frisky and I was happy to have the Fuji underneath me.   Ron and Peter were attaching each other, and it was good to have a front row seat for some of this.   Clearly I am not strong enough to run their pace for very long, but it was fun while it lasted.

    In Masonville, Some of us,  Ron, Carl, Dave, Ilka, decided to get in some extra miles.  I was getting tired but I figured I would be good for  a few more too.  We did Eden's valley ... 1st street and back to glade road.  It was here that my endurance at this pace was tested.  Unfortunately I had to say "No Mas" as I drifted off the back.  My legs didn't have any more snap and I didn't want to push to much too soon.   I have less than 500 road miles this season....

    After lots of solo time on the Hogbacks, I find Ron, Ilka, Dave waiting  for me near Ron's place.  Ilka checked out for home shortly afterwards.   From there we took it easy and went back to Dave's to check out his new place.

    A good time was had by all. .