P.S. don't pay attention to the actual elevation its looks worst than it will actually be because I exported it from my mapping program. I've ridden down here before. There will be a lot of rolling hills but no real steep or long climbs.
And then after the ride he said, "It wasn't that hard of a ride, there was just a lot of up-and-down."
Well, 50 miles and almost 3900' of climb. You decide.
Tom had us assemble at a school parking lot in Bordentown; from there we consolidated bikes, impedimenta, and riders into three cars and headed down to the ride start in Delaware.
Quite near the start was a covered bridge that we didn't get pictures of right away.
Tom's rides are known for obstacles, among other things: "Road Closed", "Bridge Out", and "Detour" signs are so common on Tom's rides that we complain if they don't appear. (We find plenty of other reasons to complain, as Tom will waste no time in reminding me.) We had at least three road closures, all of which we were able to get through.
What we hadn't counted on was the road that, at one end, was marked as a private road, and at the other turned out to be no road, but someone's gated driveway. The gate was locked, of course, and we were on the inside of it.
We lifted our bikes over the gate, snuck through it, and tried to look like we belonged there while Ricky adjusted his dropped chain and Laura added to her collection of photos of spiders on webs.
Tom wasn't sure what kind of breaks we'd have on this 49-mile ride; there was a place at 20 miles and another at 35. Except the deli he'd remembered at mile 20 had magically transformed into a Mexican restaurant. There was a gas station across the way with toilets and water, and we took an "eat up your bars" break (he'd warned us of the possibility).
We were in the "flat" part of the ride, between about miles 15-22. We wouldn't see flat again.
A few miles later, we got lost for just a minute. I should have adhered to my Tom-ride aphorism: When in doubt, go uphill. Sure enough, the correct direction was up a climb that Tom insists was not too demanding, but a few of us other riders found otherwise.
Our other stop, at mile 35, was a a gas station/convenience store. It was good enough, and they were kind enough to let us use the toilet which was hidden deep in the "employees only" recesses of the building.
They ran out of regular gas while we were there, and shortly after that, a woman came up and asked if we thought running her lawnmower on high-test would have deleterious effects. Just as if we knew what we were talking about, we assured her that it would not. And then we high-tailed it out of there to the blessed anonymity of the road before she could return with a face full of lawnmower blowback and point out to us that we might have been mistaken.
Tom told us that he had added "something dumb" to the end of the route. It turned out to be this:
A year or two ago,Tom had led us on a series of rides to all the high points of each county in NJ. So here we were, at the highest point in Delaware (the actual highest point is apparently in somebody's nearby front yard). I felt an eerie symmetry. No, I really didn't. But Tom got a picture of us, as he had at all the high points on the rides we took.
And back to the start, where we added a mile or so and DID get pictures of that covered bridge.
I like that one of Jack coming back from the bridge...
...although purists will probably like the one above better.
Ride page. So what do you think? Demanding ride or no? Well, I'll tell you: for this sixty-something with fewer than 2,000 miles in his legs for the year, it was tough enough.
I'm glad I did it. It was a great day, and these are my friends; some of them came out to support me at last week's picnic ride. I am honestly grateful to know them and to get invited to do this stuff with them. Thank you Tom, Laura, Ricky, Jack, and Bob, for one of the best days I've had in months.
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