'nother co-leader ride

Yesterday (Saturday, August 30).Tom H & I did another of those co-led rides for the club. Now, Tom wrote the book on road rides in NJ (he really did; check the link at his name), and I'm hopeless at routing (I really am; I could get lost in a bathroom), so Tom picks the routes. He goes out first with the faster folks; I ride behind with the slower ones, and to pick up any that don't keep up with Tom & co.  

We had 21 registrants. I usually limit to 20, but I got a communique from a rider when we only had 19 registered that the online registrations weren't behaving, and when I was able to reset the ride listing to fix the problem, another rider zipped in and registered before she had the opportunity. So I raised the max registrants to 21, and registered her myself. (We then had two cancellations. Wouldn't you know it?)

There were three or four rides leaving from the Cranbury start.

 Tom took out his first group after my too-long ride-rules speech, and I followed up... and wound up with ten in my group.

 We were on a route (you can see it at the link) that took us through part of Hightstown and into the Assunpink before heading east into Clarksburg. It was a great day: cool, sunny, mostly with little wind. And while there was the usual range of paces and abilities for a ride of this type, we mostly stayed together and collected at turns and stops (Boris M swept like a champ; I will happily hire him for that service any time he's available).

At the Clarksburg Deli, we rode in just as Tom's group was going out.

 Now, the Clarksburg Deli might have been there when men were being conscripted to go fight the Rebs who wanted to secede. The last time I was there, it didn't look like it had been cleaned since then, and some of that original merchandise might still have been on the shelves. It's been taken over by new management, and, while it could still use paint, it's been cleaned up and is considerably less awful than it was the last time I was there. One of the riders had complained vocally, before the ride, about stopping there, and I would not have disagreed with that person's assessment. It's still no "best rest stop" contender, but I wouldn't forego a ride because that was the planned stop (and I have done that, although those decisions are less about condition and more about the contempt that the stop owner shows to cyclists).

And back. We picked up one who didn't want to finish the ride at Tom's pace. The group continued to pace well and stayed together. We did a mile on Applegarth Road that wasn't my favorite part of the trip (but as is common in this part of NJ, there's not a better road that goes where we want to go). We got back after most of Tom's group had already left.

I hope to do a few more of these with Tom before the weather gets so bad that the smart, sane riders are putting up their bikes for the winter. In the meantime... hey, there's a club ride on Labor Day! 

ride to eric's favorite stop

 I knew yesterday (Saturday, August 16) was going to be busy. The Excellent Wife (TEW) and I were meeting friends in Manhattan for a visit to The Frick Collection (not The Frick Museum, for reasons we were unable to puzzle out). TEW and I don't drive in (or into) Manhattan, so this required the train from Princeton Junction, and then puzzling out the MTA's offerings for transport within Manhattan, with the ensuing time and mental energy investment.

I was gonna do a rant here about Frick, but what you really need to know about him was that he was insanely rich, and while he was as evil as modern billionaires, he had much better taste and style than that shown by the current crop. Not that the latter criterion is difficult, given the tackiness and stupidity of modern evil billionaires.)

In the evening, we went to the show of a very good Eagles cover band, at the clubhouse of our over-55 community. Even though the show was over before 9, it was a long day.

But I'd been contacted by Eric H, and agreed to do a club ride. I used to lead rides to an Italian bakery in Raritan, with which Eric is smitten, so he took one of my routes and agreed to lead the ride. ('Cause I sure didn't wanna lead!)

 Although the humidity was high, the temps were not at the start. We'd been complaining that none of us were in great shape, and we were looking forward to an easy ride, but Eric set a pace that was faster than I expected. It turned out his GPS device was misbehaving, and he realy had no idea what his pace was. As the ride progressed, we settled into a more comfortable (for us) pace. 

 Because of the GPS weirdness, Eric didn't have a great idea of the specifics of the route.  Those of us with GPS devices that were behaving took turns calling out the instructions.

You can see from the ride page that, after about mile 11, there are a couple of climbs. By the time we hit these, the weather had warmed up, and some of us found those climbs challenging (others did not, which may have been disheartening).

We stopped at the bakery for rest and sustenance.

 (The truth is, I really like to stop here. The bakery really is top-notch, and they have Arancia soft drinks... and the proprietor is always happy to see us. I'm a sucker for that.)

The return route does by the Duke mansion, and there's some dodgy maneuvering we have to do... but that's over in a mile or so. But with the heat and humidity, one of our number was suffering by the time we got to the end. We DID get to the end, though, without incident.

I'm going to have limited opportunities to ride in the upcoming weeks; I'm in for minor surgeries and will need recuperating time. I'm glad I got out today. 

a couple of rides this weekend

 

I can't believe I got a complaint from a reader that I haven't posted in a while... it's been a couple of weeks, but I had no idea that anybody followed at all closely. 

Well, I did get a couple of rides in this weekend. Yesterday (August 9), I went along with The Excellent Wife (TEW); that's she smiling at you in the pic at the top of the post. A coupla-three years ago (Four? Five, maybe?), she did the Flemington Jewish Community Center Farmland ride, and was smitten with the route, so we saved it, and she does it once or twice a year (or maybe more). I agree it's a nice route, and I think she does it as much to complain about the hills as to look at the views and whatnot.

But the route goes up Yard Road, one of my favorite cycling roads.

We adjusted the route after Lower Creek Road was destroyed by whatever storm it was that destroyed Lower Creek Road, and the adjusted route goes right by the Covered Bridge Bagels in Sergeantsville. We stopped there, partly because the Carousel in Ringoes closed. (There's a deli a bit farther up, but the toilet there is behind the counter, and TEW says that it's pretty gnarly, barely better than a porta-potty.)

The ride page shows that I did the 32-mile, 1800-foot-climb route at an average of 11.5mph, because we were more interested in the social aspect than the speed. I can tell you that the slow speed did not make the experience appreciably less demanding than doing it at the somewhat-faster pace I'd have fallen into if I'd been alone. I'd like to say it's hard work riding at a slower pace than one is used to, but I'd probably be engaging in mendacity to exaggerate both my fitness and my friendliness.

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Today was one of my no-pace rides. I had six. Some of the bikes:

Laura OLPH's "Beaker", above.

 

Above and below, one of Tony G's stable of gorgeous bikes. He's got almost two dozen.

Above, Stacey Perkowski's bike - the other one has a substantial crack in the carbon of the seat tube, apparently.

 I do these rides so that people who don't want pressure to keep up can come out on a club ride. Sometimes, the group doesn't connect that well, and sometimes it's a congenial social experience. Today's ride was one of the latter. We stayed together, and chatted with each other, and enjoyed the day. (I used to ride with a guy who'd say, "If you're on a ride and you can chit-chat, you're not riding hard enough." This is not the ride for him!).

We stopped at the McCaffreys on Southfield.

 

In the picture above, TEW is actually talking to someone, but I've agreed with that person not to include a picture without active, enthusiastic consent.

Ride page. I had a long nap after this one. Maybe I just need to plan on a nap after a ride.