the only game in town

So the blog post for this ride listing said, in part:

So The Excellent Wife (TEW) was saying that it would be nice if we could do a shorter, slower ride together every now and then, maybe stopping at some of the places that The Usual Suspects enjoy. I looked at the maps and rejiggered the routes, and came up with a couple of possibles. I'm thinking on last Sundays of the month, I might do a shorter ride as a C+, and see who comes out.

Now, this Sunday is supposed to be just ridiculously hot (although less so than Saturday), so it might be a good day to try one of these shorter routes.

And it was my intention, especially after having roasted yesterday (or, considering the humidity, it may be that "poached" better describes the process), that we do it at a pace that was near my usual low B (or, frequently, high C+) pace.But that wasn't how it worked out.

It turns out that the usual Sunday ride from Etra was cancelled, and three or four of the riders from that group showed up on my ride. Their energy and high spirits were, evidently, contagious, and we would up doing the route solidly in the middle of the B range. despite heat and humidity. In fact, before the stop at Thomas Sweet, they got far enough ahead that Laura OLPH and I briefly discussed the idea of Spraguing them... until we remembered that they would be enjoying air conditioning and empty calories at Thomas Sweet, and we'd be continuing to ride in the heat and humidity.

So there was that.

Laura laid down the law a bit about running off with the ride and pace pushing, and everybody was apparently properly apologetic. I was grateful I didn't have to be a hard nose about it.

As noted above, this is one of the routes that I had set up for the last-Sunday-of-the-month C+ rides I have planned. It got good reviews, because much of the roadway is newly-surfaced, and because it avoids the worst hills. We may try this, or another one, next Sunday for a C+ ride if the weather holds. And if folks show up who want to run away with the ride, I'll let 'em, and ride at the pace I advertise.

Ride page.