June 17th RONDE

jimweidner Mon 23 Jun 2008, 9:29 am

it seems that nobody wants to do a ride report,,, so here goes;;;

we started out easy enough with most riders content to take it easy. coming across route 73 at pleasantville the theme seemed to change with some faster sections. going up manatawny past union jacks (where this weeks after ride festivities will take place) as the pace increased a small group inched off the front on the short climb up to woodchoppertown rd. as my team mate was in that group i sat on the front and rode tempo all the way down to fisher mill rd. at that point the remaining group got wise to my tactics and started chasing. a few tried to get across but the gap was too big and it wasn't happening. i sat on the back as the pace increased and riders started to get shelled out the back. i could still see the front group so the gap wasn't that big. we crossed rt 662 from oak to blacksmith and there were only 4 left in the chasing group. i started thinking that we could join the front group and started to work. when i looked back i saw that i had a gap to the other three so i decided to try to bridge alone. wow that hurt, but good timing because i picked up jfk as he was falling off the back of the front group. so now we were 7 (dean, nick, jfk, doug, rasta, john, myself) in the front, the rest were chasing. we traded pulls all the way to mine road where dean decided to lose some of the dead wood in the group. it was at this same time i noticed that there was something wrong with my bike. dean attacked while i was trying to figure out what it was and i had to chase hard, just in time for another attack, and then another, and another. between these efforts i was trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with my bike. then i went thru the first left and i knew what it was,,,,,,, i was getting a rear flat,,,,,,, game over,,,,,, sit up,,,,,,, i watched the four riders (dean, nick, rasta, and doug) ride away to the finish.

it was an awesome ride, and a very hard ride. i'm sure we can break it down this tuesday after the ride at union jacks.

jim