Come join Cheryl as she leads her last ride of the season in the hills. Wet roads, high winds or temps below 35 cancel.But correspondence with Cheryl indicated that she was blowing off the ride for a hike she's long hoped to do that got scheduled across it. Her substitute was Joe M, who was not happy with the 32° temps that were predicted for the ride start time; he suggested an 11am start. I wasn't happy with that; The Excellent Wife (TEW) would not be pleased with the return-to-the-house time of 3 or 4 pm that would be the result of such a late start. We compromised on starting at 9:30. I suggested Joe email some of the usual folks about the new start time, and I promised to go to the start early in case there were any others who showed up.
One did; a rider older than I who gave his name as Will, and who rode an old Specialized Langster. When I told him about the late start, he said he'd ride on his own, and maybe he'd be back for the ride start... but he wasn't, and nobody else appeared. It was just Joe and me, and Joe had a route that Cheryl had sent, that he had adjusted a bit.
Here's the route. It turned out to be a great ride. With just two of us, I didn't have to sweep, and I didn't get competitive (well, except at one point when we were passed by a group I know I could have kept up with... but they turned left where we went right). Yes, it was cold when we started, but we warmed up, and then the day did. As cold as it was, visibility was ideal. We passed plenty of places where Laura would have been off the bike and taking pictures.
I could swear that I saw autumn come in today. I remarked early in the day that I didn't see much of the leaves having turned... and then later we passed through areas where there was a lot of color (and where other places didn't have much; Joe thought it might be microclimate differences, and he's probably right). And on the drive home, I'm sure there were trees with autumn colors, that had not turned when I drove by those trees this morning.
Joe appears not to suffer from the same competitiveness that plagues me; he seems to know what his pace is and be able to keep to that. He doesn't risk his neck on screaming downhills, and he doesn't try to keep up where he's not having fun. I told him at the break about having started with Strava, and how I was regretting it now. I had a brief term as "King of the Mountain" of a little-travelled piece of road. When somebody beat my time, I got an email from Strava; Joe said it probably came with a sound file that said, "Nyaah, nyaah!". I thought about going out to beat the time again... but that's not really when I ride for.
Grant Petersen, of Rivendell Bikes, said it might be better to count hours in the saddle than either miles or speed. That's probably a good fit for me.
I want to remark on two parts of the route. If you look at the map, you'll see we did a loop at Sergeantsville, to go around the store and come back the other way after passing by the covered bridge. I've done the western and northern parts of that route many times, but I'd never been on the eastern and southern parts. Those roads were gorgeous. Joe had thrown out the option of cutting the ride shorter by leaving off that loop, but, pleading my increasing weight, I opted for the longer route, and I'm glad I did; I think Joe would agree.
The other is the last mile-or-so before the end. The most common way to go would be to continue on Delaware, left on Main, to the start point at the school administration building. For several rides, we have cut off part of the trip on Main (which is heavily auto-traveled) by going down Abey and Curliss. Today, we cut short part of the route on (the even more auto-traveled) Delaware Avenue by taking the right on King George, to Park, to Eglantine, then a quick backtrack to pick up Abey. I go on many rides out of Pennington, and this little change makes that last part of the route much more pleasant, and less anxiety-provoking.
So thanks for the lead, Joe, and thanks for the route, Cheryl. You should have come; you would have liked it.
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