Sunday, August 31, 2008

Early Birds South - never the same

Return to the Early Birds, the last official summer season ride as tomorrow, Monday, is Labor Day already.

This morning Py was not feeling so great, as the evening before there was a good BBQ and he eat little too much... but after a few bathroom sessions he felt much better, did not felt like eating anything, so skipped breakfast and only had an Cappuccino. Just before getting out and on the bike he figured an banana may be good to get at least a little bite. Fresh air at 6:30am and a very easy ride to the start -- the sun was still at or below the horizon, little chilly but looking like a great day for an ride. Close the Manorville KK ride start -- still a good amount of time left, he joined T for an Coffee and some multi grain bagel, that helped feeling better.

From Early Birds


With a few minutes left he rode over to the KK parking lot and joined a already pretty numerous group of riders.

From Early Birds






A few minutes late they moved out South and slowly picked up a decent pace, averaging about 36km/h until just before hitting Dune Road a little prolonged flat stop stopped the move...





Flying as usual on Dune Road with hitting 50km/h for several times... Py was working hard, may be too hard a couple of times having fun in that "Belgium Circle" like game or a little variant??, where on the right riders are moving fast passing riders on left -- they protect the fast riders from wind -- and once in front slowly falling back to the end at the left to repeat game and pick up speed again on the right... however, things are not perfect, as some riders just trying to hang on at the end and a spot to move into the passing row has to be picked. Fun fast moving for several miles. Repeating that fast take over rides several times Py run a bit early low of energy or what so ever, may be because of the non optimal pre ride day... However, they also were going at quite some speed, as the initial group got stretched and bunched up, he found himself with just a one or two miles to go for the bridge in between the very fast head and the bunch behind...

Just at the bottom of the bridge still on Dune Rd some of the head group were stopped for one more mechanical or flat, he does not know exactly what happened. Passing by going up the bridge, looking back and waiting for an photo opportunity -- what is usually rare at this nice spot:



One more waiting for the group, just visible far down the bridge here:



Here a nice one of the "head group" left behind.



Oho... putting back the camera, Py had to huddle up to hang on and well, he just got around the corner as the big group just started out for the second section. And just been over on the other side of the South Fork one more flat wait up...



From then on pretty fast moving and one catch up sprint within a little bunch of just three riders, as they got left behind at an turn getting stuck on the wrong side of the road because of unusual heavy traffic. Averaging 38.9km/h on that whole section until the Seven Eleven. From there the group was flying back to the start with just 37km/h again...

A different ride, lots of speed variations... the good thing, it is never the same and never gets boring so far.

Ride stats including the easy section to and from home. Easy - Fast - Easy.

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