Ride Reports March 2007

Laura's Birthday Ride
January 20, 2007 by Laura Chaffiotte

Bill Preston, Bill Smith and ride leader Laura Chaffiotte arrived at Monocacy Middle School at 9 am, wondering where the rest of the riders were hiding (it was 18 degrees with 30 mph winds gusts - we think they were hiding someplace warm). We headed north towards Emmitsburg. At mile 28 we decided to have a hot brunch at Thurmont's Kountry Kitchen. After this feeble attempt at warming ourselves, we got back on the road. Next stop was the beautiful By-King rest stop in Lewistown. From there we headed back to MMS (indirectly), reaching our goal of the ride leader's age - a total of 45 miles.

Bill's Birthday Ride
February 17, 2007 by Bill Smith

Laura Chaffiotte and ride leader Bill Smith went to the ride start in Emmitsburg, hoping to meet numerous other Pedalers who would brave the icy, snowy Pennsylvania roads with us. The hordes of cyclists decided to stay home, owing to the cool weather—the 6 inches of snow three days previous to the ride might have also contributed to the missing riders’ wise decision.

Nonetheless, despite the poor road conditions, we decided to press on with a different route than originally planned. The original cue sheet was to take small back roads into McSherrystown, PA, but most of those roads were still buried in ice and snow. Instead, we headed south on Creamery Road (there was a little bit of ice to push our bikes around there) and then took well-plowed, clean Keysville Rd to Taneytown. Being too early for a Sheetz stop, we cycled up MD 194 all the way to Littlestown, PA (where the ride leader was once murdered in a dream, but that’s another story) and found some nice sticky buns and bananas there (at the Sheetz) for some quick energy.

Then we headed back to Taneytown and west to Thurmont, where another fine lunch awaited us (no muffins, though) at the Kountry Kitchen. A short ride back to Emmitsburg and we had put it 55 miles at a pace of 13.3 mph (not bad, considering we both rode our 'milk trucks'). The low for the day was 25, but the high was a balmy 35, which actually felt quite warm compared to what we’ve been riding in lately. The original route will be led again in March or April, when it might be warmer.

Wednesday Night Lights & Pizza
by Bill Smith

As we go into the last months of our Wintertime splendor, the following are the award categories and their leaders:

Mike Procario is far and away ahead in the Golden Tube Award, as his 'hit a brick on New Design Rd, blow a tube, almost crash, and lose his computer' stunt one evening puts him far and away in the leadership. No one has ever earned so many style points in this manner before. And, on Feb 21, Mike achieved his second flat (Dr. Chris Borkman managed his first on the same night; for a brief 90 minutes, both were tied with one flat).

Corey Rabideau has all but sewn up the Rookie of the Year Award, as this is the sixteen-year old’s first year of riding with us. Did we mention he is also nice to us, as he awaits our arrival at the top of every climb?

John Gantnier and Bill Smith are tied for the Golden Icicle Award. Both have cycled on the coldest of evenings. However, John also leads nighttime rides on Monday nights, and, even though they do not really count toward this award, that could easily make him a crowd favorite.

Ride attendees for January and March have included Dr. Chris Borkman, John Gantnier, Henrik Olsen, Bill Preston, Mike Procario, Corey Rabideau, Bernie Sellers and Bill Smith.