Another warm day, lots of other cyclists out on the road, but not too many of “us.” Just myself, Eric & Joe. It’s Thursday which means we ride up through the park, and it was shortly before making the turn from Kings onto Greer that we first spotted the cyclist in red in the distance, heading up Kings the “normal” way. I couldn’t get a read on the cyclist’s speed but knew there was a chance we’d meet up at the upper park entrance, when we merged back onto Kings. It’s a bit longer going up through the park (adds just over a minute) but I figured, even taking it easy as we planned to today, there was still a chance.

And there she was. Right on time, just as we made the right turn onto Kings. Only she didn’t seem to be out of breath, even after immediately picking up speed to “our” pace. It wasn’t too long after that that she started riding at “her” pace which was a bit faster that Eric or I were into this morning.

Too bad, because I wanted to do the civil thing, tell her about our ride, let her know we’d be happy to have her and any others who enjoy climbing ride with us. But that’s not so easily done when you’re breathing heavily, so I assigned Joe to go after her. Besides, Joe doesn’t breathe heavily, so less chance of mistaken intentions. But even Joe couldn’t quite do the job; The Lady in Red arrived at the top maybe 20 meters ahead of him. When I heard that, I knew. This was the same young woman a week and a half ago that was pulling a much-larger version of our ride along Skyline at a pace the shelled me off the back.

The final confirmation that this was the same woman seen before came when I caught back up to her at the end of the descent… just like a week and a half ago. Don’t think she likes descending, but she’s rapidly becoming a wicked climber.

And of course, this happens while Kevin’s unable to ride (three weeks from today he gets his kidney stent removed and can start riding again!) and simply doesn’t believe there are any women anywhere near his age out climbing the hills. –Mike–