Sunday, August 26, 2007

White Clay Upgrade

Turnout was light for Sunday's roadie, so we ad-libbed and took it over to White Clay to work on the land speed record. If it's possible, the trails seemed even sweeter than our first trip last year. It seemed like we rode downhill the entire day - a physical impossibility but a tribute to Andy's knowledge of the park.

For those of you who remember the skills course from last year, it has been upgraded with a couple of see-saws, a suspension bridge, and an insane vertical drop midway through. Our trip through was punctuated with frequent shouts ("oh shit no!") and occasional moral support ("you need to grow a pair"), and ended with an overdose of adrenaline and ear to ear grins.

The only (and I mean ONLY) downer was on the way home when a fellow cycler misinterpreted a complementary gesture from our group, and graphically communicated what we perceived to be a negative response (for more on this you need to join a weekday ride).

Charge your batteries and eat your wheaties for this week:
* Tuesday night depart upper at 830pm
* Thursday morning depart lower at 630am

Chris

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Chelsy's Report

Ten riders demonstrated yet again that beer and bicycling DO go together. The pace line to Chelsey’s set a blistering pace before things unraveled a bit approaching Downingtown. We rolled into Chelsy’s, ordered the usual, fired up the jukebox, and welcomed our newest rider – Jim Taylor – to the group. Kirk does that name ring a bell?

The birthday gags were entertaining as always. Dave Calvaresi showed real commitment by immediately "suiting up" in his green-polka-dot-full-body cycling suit. It was a memorable sight that I am trying to expunge from my memory, but some of the local ladies had a different take and gave Dave a nice send off when we left Chelsy’s.

Saying that the return trip pace line was a little ragged would be an understatement, but we eventually formed up at the Dorlan Mill fire road for a 10-across soap-box-derby-style race to the dam – won convincingly by Sebastian. Then as we rolled back into Lyndenwood, a group of riders split from the pack to dive into the park for a midnight milkrun down the quarry trail. The milkrun almost morphed into a trip to the ER when a railroad tie ejected one rider, head over heels, into the woods. The ejection was punctuated by calls of "rider down" and "it looks like a bad one" but he was lucky to have landed in relatively forgiving brush vs a rock field or tree.

Hope to see you tomorrow morning for the Thursday AM ride (departing lower at 6:30am).

Chris

P.S. Kirk feel free to contact Jim directly to find out if he spilled the beans on you yet. You guys probably have some catching up to do...