stapfam

Unusual thing happened on my ride today. After I had done the hills and had the coffee- I decided to get a few miles in across the marshes. Flat ground with plenty of 90 deg bends and a slight continual slight uphill slope. One or two pimples but nothing that can remotely be called a hill. About 5 miles along the coast and I was ready for a bit of leg work. First of all, I am not a speed merchant. Most of my riding is in the middle 42t ring and I am normally around 15mph on this road. Today I felt good so the speed went up to 18mph. I felt comfortable and just starting to breath firmly. Kept the cadence to 100 so decided to see what I was comfortable at. For about a mile- I got to 26mph and that was middle ring and about15 on the rear. Now cadence of 100- speed of 26mph and 42/15 gearing- What the h&ll do I need a 52 ring for? I know- So I can do 30mph- but I reckon that would be possible in 42/11- except not today as I tried it. All that happened was that the cadence dropped to 80ish. I could not go faster without pushing myself too far.

Then the unusual happened after I slowed back down to 18mph. A group of 5 roadies came along and they were puffing. They saw me pull out in front of them about 3 miles back and reckoned they had someone to chase, so off they went. Just as they got me in their sights- I accelerated and they thought they had a race on. For the past mile I had been leaving them. Why had I slowed down? Then the comments came-He's only got Sora 8 speed and its an MTB cassette- Its not a top grade bike. They were regular riders- not top club riders and were just out for a 30 mile fast ride. Admittedly they had already done 20 miles so were a bit tired but all of it had been on the marshes. When I told them where I had already been that morning I thought a couple of them were about to fall off their bikes. We waved goodbye and the last comment I heard was-"Did you see his calf muscles? How old do you reckon he was?" If I had any energy left, I would have caught them up and told them my age but to be honest- I was just about finished.

Nice to show the youngsters up but They caught me at just the correct time when I was trying to prove something to myself. Just because it proved that they need a bit more training and a few more hills on their routes, worries me now- They might catch me on one of the hills I do and really find out how slow I am.

Retro Grouch 

Heh, heh, heh. Reminds me of a story I once read about driving in Italy. It seems driving is considered a sport over there and every vehicle is considered the equal to every other vehicle until proven otherwise.

A sporty guy in a Alfa Romeo caught up with a local in a farm truck so the race was on. The farm truck took full advantage of the narrow roads and, by bouncing off of a few stone walls, managed to stay ahead of the Alfa for several miles. Eventually, however, they came to an open area where overtaking the farm truck was inevitable. The farmer, quite properly, stuck his arm out of the window and waved the Alfa by.

Red Baron

My kind of Ride Stapfam, Bloody good show (did I say that right?).

Beverly

Nice job of showing the younger generation what the senior crowd can do

The Weak Link

Tu lo hombre.