cranbury in franklin

 This ride was always gonna be chaos.

The title is a reference to the sometimes-huge rides that go out of Cranbury, our most popular start. The rides frequently split up, and are sometimes a bit... unpredictable.

Yesterday, Saturday, was rainy, and a number of folks didn't go out to ride. Today was colder and windy, but clear... but only three rides were listed: a slower ride, subsequently cancelled; a faster ride, the listing for which included this caveat: "I'm concerned about 35MPH wind gust forecast in Allentown. Will drive to the park and make game time decision", and my medium-paced ride.

At one point, I had 26 registrants, but there were a number of cancellations and no-shows. Still, we had 20 riders, at many different ranges of ability. It was clear that this group was going to break up into a faster and a slower group. I could see no way of keeping the group together, and with a group like this, I'm not sure that was a desirable outcome, anyway. Prior to the ride, Laura OLPH agreed to lead the slower group, and I knew I could count on Dave H to sweep; I also enlisted the services of Albert P to keep an eye on the slower end of the faster group.

Turfing out those responsibilities turned out to be a smart decision. People decided which group to ride with, and the decisions appeared correct as the ride went on. 

As we left, I heard over my shoulder, "I'm on your wheel, Jim." It was Len C. I said, "There's only one problem with that, Len: when I look into my mirror, the only thing I can see is a mirror full of Len C." There's no way to know how far back the rest of the gang is; and with Len, they might be pretty far back indeed; Len can lay down some wattage.

I tried to keep up with the fast group (who are mostly all younger than I), and was able to for a while. We rolled up to Colonial Park, where there was a call to use the toilets. While we were there, Laura rolled past with the other group, apparently not noticing we were in the parking lot near the rest room. There was subsequent confusion when we rolled in behind them. There was also confusion when I changed the route to avoid some headwind on Skillman Road on this windy day.

But we all got around to the Blawenburg Bistro, and some of my riders went in and spent cash at my currently-favorite café.

After the stop, I could no longer keep up a pretense of riding with the faster folks; I let 'em go off ahead and stayed in the back, and chatted with the folks, at a more "parade" pace.

I think some of these faster folks need to lead a B+ ride on Sundays, don't you?

Ride page.