Today’s ride didn’t go as planned, in fact it was a total
cluster.
Mike and I started out from Altona this morning at 6:15 AM on
our road bikes, with the intention of riding to Ward. Herein lies our first
mistake. Little did we know that there was road construction ahead, leaving a
dirt and gravel surface. And when we
reached the start of it, we had no idea how long it would last.
It seemed endless and at times a little dangerous with our
super thin road bike wheels but finally, after 4 miles we were back on
pavement!
I’ll blame the fact that we were concentrating on avoiding stones
on the road surface for our next dumb mistake. We started approaching a town
that was too close to be Ward, only to realize that we missed the turn and
wound up in Jamestown.
Mike and I are the only two members of the Bad Ass Rednecks Cycle
Club, and whenever either one of us does something stupid, the other says “You
are endangering the whole team!” I led us up the wrong path, so it was
definitely my fault, and thus I was endangering the whole team. Yes it's a very childish joke.
But I wasn’t finished yet!
We got to the center of Jamestown just in time to see the
local diner worker step outside to take a quick toke. I said hi, he asked if I
needed a hit, I said I was OK.
Realizing our dumb mistake we decided to make the best of it
and continue on the paved road till it turned to dirt.
After 4 more absolutely grueling miles we reached the top.
The incline reminded us a lot of SuperFlag in Boulder.
We took a short break and started down, but after only a
mile, my rear tire had a blowout. This was my first blowout going fast and I was surprised that I was able to safely slow down to a stop. In fact it was only the
hissing noise that alerted me to the issue.
So here we are, two guys, one flat tire and between the two of us we don’t have the tools
to repair it. Mike was going light today so he had absolutely
nothing, I had a spare tube and a makeshift tool to remove the tire, but no way to fill
the tire with air.
Now this is not the first time we've gotten stymied by flats without tools, in fact it's only the latest of many times, but Mike was indeed happy that this time it was my flat and that we are getting close to being “even”.
Now this is not the first time we've gotten stymied by flats without tools, in fact it's only the latest of many times, but Mike was indeed happy that this time it was my flat and that we are getting close to being “even”.
With clips on the bottom of my road bike shoes, I walked my bike down to Jamestown while Mike rode
down to the car and drove back to get me.
The silver lining is... After getting home and checking the stats, I realized that
although the trip to Ward would have been 3.5 miles more, the overall steepness
of our route was greater! The Bad Ass Rednecks ride again!
Later,
Steve
No comments:
Post a Comment