The Epic Easter Ride

The plan for today was to do 4 hours of endurance/tempo with Todd. As soon as we rolled out from the shop, the wind smacked us and I had a feeling we might not make it the full 4 hours. Apparently the Northeast US and Belgium decided to trade weather today. For De Ronde, blue skies and sunny with temperatures at or above 20°C. For New Jersey, partly cloudy, gusty wind and flurries with temperatures at or below 5°C.

Not thirty minutes into the ride, Harold had a flat. It was a sign of things to come. I had just started to warm up a bit from riding tempo next to Todd and, while the change was made quickly, it was enough time to cool right down. Not a mile down the road, we passed Omar and Ralf on the side of the road, also changing a flat. We decided not to stop since we all wanted to stay warm.

Andy yelled at me for pulling in the gutter and not giving anyone the benefit of the draft. Sorry guys, my bad. We were able to make it the rest of the way to the First Bridge rest stop uneventfully. Andy and Harold smartly turned home after the beating they had taken from the cold and wind.

We rolled out of the First Bridge parking lot and made about five minutes worth of progress when Todd notified us he had to stop to fix some kind of saddle/shoe/cleat/pedal combo problem. We waited another five or so minutes, getting cold. It was at this time that the already-shortened ride was in danger of becoming shorter. We pressed on to Coppermine at my behest. Coppermine was probably the highlight of the ride. Being uphill and protected by trees, it gave us a brief respite from the wind. At the top, Mark and Pluto decided to descend and head straight home along Canal while Todd, Dave K. and myself decided to take Dog Jump home. Once across the canal and into Rocky Hill, the flurries began and intensified.

As we came through the housing developments, we were about to make the left turn onto the road that follows the canal back to First Bridge when an incident occurred that pushed the ride from epic into legendary territory. Amidst the fairly heavy flurries, Dave K. lost focus for a moment when he looked behind to check for a car and realized he had overlapped his front wheel with Todd's rear wheel. I watched from a distance as Dave locked up his rear wheel, nearly righted himself, unclipped his left foot and tripodded and ultimately went down in one of the most graceful crashes I've seen. The only damage sustained was a crooked stem, which was easily remedied. It was at this point I realized that we probably should not have been riding at all today. Fate had not been on our side.

On the way home, we were still riding tempo and finally got back to the park, about three hours after leaving the shop but with only about two hours of actual riding time. It was then that I decided the ride warranted documentation.

Despite the mishaps, the ride was a solid two hour block of training and well worth it. Let's hope the weather improves for next weekend so I can put all the time and distance in I've been wanting to do.