Juan Foote

While out on a ride yesterday my son and I pass an older fellow going the other way on a country road several miles south of here. We waved and said hello and proceeded to a stop at the store up the road we commonly refresh at with a Gatorade and a bananna...the owner there is a nice enough guy to have stocked the store with them after I inquired about having some fresh fruit.
While we were finishing up at the store, the fellow passes back by heading the same way as us. We decided to follow him out and see if we could catch him, meet, and perhaps have a new riding partner. We took off after him at the fastest pace we could manage and at first it appeared that we were catching the guy. A few minutes up the road, I see the guy look over his shoulder, stand up, and take off. The section we were on lead to a long downhill section and by the time we got there he was out of sight and gone.
We decided to take an alternate route on the way back that has a really bad road surface, but cuts several miles off the route. It also has two hills much steeper than anything else in the area. After coming off the end of that bad bit of road, right as we join back up with the main thru-way, here goes the old fellow peddling by again. He shot a look over his shoulder at us and tried to take off again. At this point you could see he was very fatigued, but I was as well. Had I been fresh, I might have caught the guy going up the other side of the hill, but I was so beat I had to get off the bike and rest for a minute. I got back to it, and was suprized to find that he, too, had stopped at a church on the corner of the road near my house. I tried as best I could to catch the guy, but he turned into a neighborhood just up around a corner before I got to him, and was out of sight down a side street by the time I got there. I could see that he was barely moving at that point...almost had him.
This is the second time I have seen the guy, and figure it is just a matter of time before I catch up to him somewhere. There are few riders around here, and even fewer really good loops through the country that combine good road surface with lighter traffic patterns. I look forward to the possibility of catching up to him one of these days and hopefully finding a local ride partner in a similar fit and speed level.

On the WAY off chance that he is a member here...if you ride a red Trek, yellow jersey, and live off New Hope Rd...let that one legged guy catch you next time, and let's ride together instead of in our make believe competition...and congrats guy, you are fast.

catmandew52

Maybe he is anti-social or just wants to be in his own zone.
That, or he thinks you are trying to get his yellow jersey.

Juan Foote

If so, he earned it yesterday. Not only did he nearly kill me, but my 14 year old son too, trying to catch him.

Juan Foote

A pic of my son:


and myself:


on our ride down to Lake Jackson yesterday. This is the view from Barnett's Bridge.