Sunday started my four days of riding. John and I went out to pre-ride the rest of Mohican Wilderness that we missed the last time we were out. It was a beautiful day once again, dry, sunny and warm. Being a week from the first ombc race and good weather there was a good amount of people out on the course. John and I had discussed chain breakage on the way up. He had pointed out that he though it was difficult to break a single speed chain, with no gears he figured the wear would be less. The first half of the trail we rode through no problem and headed off to the longest mtb hill climb in Ohio. Before we even reach to woods and about 300 feet up the hill John snaps his chain. We head back to the car and he put on a new link and off we go again. This is where karma can be a real buzzkill, John breaks his chain about half a mile up the hill. We fix the chain with tool and links we had smartly brought with us. We ascend the hill and start the downhill, at one point something happened where I had to stop, I forget way, maybe a stick got stuck in my wheel or something like that. Nonetheless, John went ahead. I fixed whatever had happened and set off. Get back to the car and John is no where to be seen. Since I was behind and didn't pass him I knew that he hadn't had a mechincal or fallen, so I assumed he had either gotten lost or gone off course and went back to try and find me. If he had gotten lost it wouldn't be a big deal because it's all one big hill so all he had to do was point his bike downhill and he would end back at the cars. So I waited around and did a little bit of cool down and waited for him to get back. When I got back his bike was sitting against the car minus a chain. That's right three chains in one ride! I can understand climbing those hills on a single speed you'll surely put a lot of torque into the pedals.
The second ride was a short 10 miler on my fixed gear that served two goals. First, it was meant as a recovery ride to keep my legs fresh, secondly, it was a chance to play with my new toy. The Garmin edge 205. It doesn't have heart rate or cadence but those will be features I will get back when I can afford an edge 305 later in the summer. The amount of other data and other features is incredible and will hold me over till then. The information that can be disected is so vast. Not a bad ride overall with a 16.7 mph average.
Next ride involved my Scattante Team XRL and the Summit Freewheelers. It was rather chilly on tuesday but still was a fun ride. Both of my croonies John and Sara showed up. Sara was alte and showed up to the wrong trailhead so we sadly missed her, though she would make it up the next day, and John was running late but luckily was able to jump onto the back for a good ten miles before he pulled off. We started at Botzum and ascended up Truxell Road where I was off the front the entire way. At the top we started are rotating paceline and did a quick loop around Stow and retraced down Truxell again where I hit my new top speed of 42 mph. We followed Riverview back and I asked if anyone would contest a final sprint. No one spoke up, so i figured the last 200 meters I would go all out and see if anyone would try and catch me. Well, 300 meters out one of the other riders jumped and we were off. We quickly left behind our group and blew by the Akron Bicycle Club that was 100 meters up the road. I got from 13 mph to 32 mph in 30 seconds over 300 meters on a flat road. Not to shabby for early season and being a climber.
The last ride invovled Sara and I and my Fuji "rain" bike. It rained early in the day but cleared off nicely this afternoon for a good go at the CVNP Big Boy route. It was a fun day with three major climbs of 2000+ feet total and 31 miles. Sara is a great rider and a fun person too. She stuck out each of the climbs and did well. She flatted out towards the end but that was an easy fix. With a avg speed of 15.9, and hour fifty nine minutes on the bike it was a perfect ride. I'm sure there will be a lot of fun rides with my two croonies this summer.
90 miles in 4 days
5 hours on the bike total plus working everyday.
Not a bad week!
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