So much for the gorgeous weather; this morning, it was dark when I got up and foggy when we left. Foggy enough that I made sure our tail lights were working and foggy enough that my Oakleys were completely, er, fogged.
Smaller group so maybe I can name the players. Myself, Kevin (my son, not the pilot), Chris, Eric, Mike, Millo (picked up later on Skyline), Todd and at least one other. No photos from the ride to help me out either; I’d left the video camera at the shop. Heck, I didn’t even have my garmin computer with me this morning, so I tried out Strava’s iPhone app again.
We rode straight up instead of through the Park, with the faster guys setting a pretty tough pace initially, slowing down just enough for me to keep them in sight as I closed in on the park entrance. Kevin was not too far behind me, and I could have exploited my advantage at that point but instead dropped back to ride with him the rest of the way up the hill, hoping to keep his pace moderate enough to avoid a seizure. Meantime Eric and Mike were gradually catching up to us, or at least I thought it was Eric and Mike; turned out, when we got to the top, we were waiting only for Eric. Mike never showed up, and Eric hadn’t seen him for some time. Fearing that he might have had a flat (or worse) Eric and I went back down the hill in search of him, sending the rest of the guys on ahead.
We never did find Mike (we later found out that he’d simply been tired from a ride the previous day and decided to head for home early), but Eric and I met back up with the group by heading all the way down Kings, back up 84 and south on Skyline to intercept. I said something to Eric about how far we’d go before we regrouped with the rest and he said, since it was 9:02am, it should be any moment… and poof, on command, there they were. I was impressed. Eric is even more-punctual and precise on timings than I am!
Nice ride back down the hill, but no final sprint on Albion as they’ve cut trenches across the road in three places! Yikes. Wonder if they were repaired by the time the noon ride came through?
