Ride Reports April 2008

Lights and Pizza
February 27, 2008 by Bill Smith

Lights and pizza and stars and wind and cold and frozen water bottles, and lions and tigers and bears. Oh my!

Just Dr. Chris Borkman and I rode last night. Most likely, everyone else thought it too cold/windy. Well, not Bernie Sellers - his wife was home sick, so he skipped riding so he could take care of her. In the system, we call this "banking points" for redemption later in the year (when the weather is warmer).

Anyway, I believe I was most uncomfortable getting ready for the ride: putting my bike together, donning the right clothing, attaching my lights, trying to keep from blowing away, etc. Once we got moving, we were fairly comfortable.

The good doctor and I planned a route that would give us maximum tailwind and minimum headwind on the return piece. We shot down New Design Rd southward to Adamstown (mostly tailwind, some crosswind). Then we worked our way to Doubs and over to Basford Rd and back north along the leeward edge of the ridge, which provided nice protection from the cold wind. Except...

...God said "HA!" - on the first steep climb on narrow Basford Rd - a very short, steep one, mind you - these two things happened simultaneously: a car passed us and a 25-mph gust of wind hit us in the face. We barely kept our bikes from falling over. If I had been on a fixed gear such as Chris was pedaling, I'd have done a mind-meld with the pavement.

I was a little chilly near ride's end, but Chris claimed warmth and comfort on the entire ride. Of course, is he to be believed? You decide. I offer this, taken from an acquaintance's last visit to his dentist office:

Unnamed Patient: "Dr. Borkman, will it hurt?"
Dr. Borkman (holding 8-inch needle in right hand and hacksaw in left): "Of course not, Mr. Preston."
Formerly Unnamed Patient: "Ah good. I was worried."
Dr. Borkman: "Open wide."
Formerly Unnamed Patient: "AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Even Dustin Hoffman cringed...

We rode 20.7 miles at a blistering 13.6 mph pace

Annual Pre-Meeting Ride
March 1, 2008 by Vicki Smith

When I got up this morning, I could only think that the weather gods were having a bit of fun with us. Today would have been the perfect day to do yesterday's ride ;) Bill and I arrived for yesterday's ride and found several hardy souls looking to ride with us. Due to the wind, I "helped" Bill put our tandem together, but since I did this, Bill was out of his routine, which would offer me a new experience later in the ride (more on that later.)

We left about five minutes early, due to yours truly thinking the ride left at 9:30 AM (it was to start at 10AM and we pushed off at 9:55AM.) Catherine Badger, who obviously reads the newsletter and knew the ride start time, sprinted to catch up with us as we rounded the corner at 2nd and Bentz. Also on the ride were Eric Stuyck, Peggy Parker, Betsy LaPadula, Chuck Wilson, and Bill and me on the tandem.

We looped through the cemetery to sample the wind, and then headed south of town. Bill's goal was to make it down to Manor Woods Rd so we could catch an awesome tailwind as we headed east on this stretch. Heading south on Ballenger Creek proved to be a challenge with the wind. It's also a challenge to pedal when the pedal comes off the crank - I had put the pedals on and asked Bill to tighten them. However, we were setting up the tandem out of the normal routine, and Bill never did tighten those pedals. Betsy was behind us and thought we had some new clipless pedal system that involves removing the pedal with the shoe. The stop to fix our mishap was beneficial for Peggy, who was able to borrow Betsy's liners for her hands (she forgot to bring her full fingered gloves due to a recent garage reorganization.)

When we finally made it to Manor Woods, all were ready for some speed. Bill was a wee bit disappointed that we only hit 38.5 mph (still less than the posted speed limit of 40 mph.) Then it was a straight shot back to town for the meeting.

We rode for 18.7 miles, a significant portion of that with cross winds (always fun on the tandem.)

Catoctin Climber Rides
March 15, 2008 by Bill Smith

It appeared a wee bit warmer than it actually was yesterday, did it not?

Leaving from Rose Hill Plaza in Frederick, Tung Do, Betsy Lapadula, Eric Stuyck, Catherine Badger, Jeff "Bike Lust" Johnson, Ray Gable and I headed north into a fairly strong wind. Out of the wind, it was a beautiful day. Riding into the wind imparted a chill beneath my little wind vest. On the way up to Lewistown, we noticed an abundance of litter on Bethel Rd, as well as an interesting landscaping project on a farmer's field - apparently made by an ATV or truck. I can only suspect that the owner of the field was not very pleased to see a good part of his field torn up from wide tires.

We reached Lewistown a couple of minutes after our advertised starting time, but that was arranged in order to allow Brian ("I'm wearing shorts today") King to find a "litter box". Joining us on this much more difficult leg of the trip were Colm Lynch (I think that's the correct last name) on his first Pedalers ride, Harry deMoll, Brian King, Dawn Hough, Issac Miedzinski and Joan Wicks.

We hit the bottom of the dreaded Catoctin Hollow climb together and began the lovely ascent. Underneath a mostly-blue sky, we took it pretty easily up this beast, as it is so early in the season. Eric, showing his 950-plus miles form this year, reached the top in no time. Joan Wicks slid in there just behind yours truly and we relaxed a bit while the rest arrived at the top.

From there we descended to MD77, then turned left and climbed even more, up to the turn at Foxville-Deerfield Rd. This climb seemed even tougher to some, as the Catoctin Hollow Rd (1039 feet of climbing, I believe - courtesy of Isaac's GPS) climb wore us down first. It was here that Brian King picked up a lonely, fuzzy, pink passenger - a stuffed "Lambchop" (see the pictures on the website). We were rewarded by a very pretty and exciting downhill run to MD550 (Sabillasville Rd), a cozy-looking church nestled quietly at the intersection next to the railroad tracks. Then we blasted downhill some more to the Sheetz in Thurmont for food and drink.

We had an easy, mostly-tailwinded ride back to Lewistown and then to Frederick. Isaac reported about 2200 feet of climbing on the 32-mile route, which is fairly tough for such a short ride in Spring. The seven of us who started in Frederick finished with 50 for the day.

Lily Pons
March 22, 2008 by Koman Nambiar

Eight adventurous souls braved the chilly morning and set out from Ballenger Creek Middle School. The folks on the ride were Bill Smith, Catherine Badger, Mike Procario, Eric Stuyck, Peggy Parker, Chuck Wilson, Craig Pollack and yours truly.

Being designated "leader" I did a little sprint to "lead" only to be overtaken by the Speedy Gonzales' (Mike, Eric & Craig) and The Speedy Senorita-Catherine de Grande Vitesse.

When we reached the point to bear left onto Doubs Road from Ballenger Creek Pike (per the cue sheet), Bill tells me that we cannot see the Speedys. He then concludes that they have read my faulty cue sheet and may have continued on BC Pike. So Bill tells us (Chuck, Peggy & me) to continue and he shall go forward and round up thw wayward herd.

We proceed only to find the Speedys waiting for us at the next stop sign. They had followed the cue sheet to a T, like all rational bicyclists do! We continued on our ride and reached our turn-around-destination of Lilypons Water Gardens. No sign of Bill. After using the facilities and checking out the object de art we set out on the return journey. Bill joins us and the story is that he went all the way to Point of Rocks looking for the lost souls resulting in his trip odometer reading nine miles more than ours. No sooner had Bill joined us we were bombarded with what some folks though was snow, but were more like 1-mm diameter micro hail/ice particles. This happened for about 120 seconds and then miraculously the sun starts shining and everything was hunky dory from then on.

We completed the 23-mile ride without any further consequences and all those who participated were glad that they came out to get the blood flowing fast in their system . Chuck, Catherine & Bill helped me bring up the rear in turns to keep the promise of the ride: NO RIDER LEFT BEHIND! GUARANTEED!

I will propose a rerun in June so that more Pedalers can enjoy the terrain. The Lilypons folks assure me that at that time the lilys will be out and in bloom.

Good health & happy bicycling to all