The plan originally for the Saturday Morning No Drop Fat Bike Ride was to try to get into Wilderness Park but rains mid week changed those plans, sometimes you just have to roll with it. Ride started out with a bit of excitement as the fire trucks came rolling through just as we left the parking lot, I swear I thought there was going to be an accident as none of the cars on 27th stopped even though the lights and sirens were both working overtime. I guess Spring Game tailgating sometimes trumps someone else's emergency.
The new plan was to head out to Malcolm on our usual route only backwards to try to avoid the mad house around Memorial Stadium, the events at the beginning of the ride only served to affirm those thoughts. N Street Cycle Track was the perfect route out of the craziness and the city has done a fantastic job getting the timing right heading West; we only really had to stop at Antelope Valley and 9th/10th Streets.
A few more twists and turns and we ran into a train, on the only tracks we had to cross on the entire route.
The gravel was in excellent shape, mostly dry but damp enough to keep the dust down. We even had a new rider join us on Saturday, Abby came out for not only her first SMNDFBR but her first gravel ride ever. You could have fooled me though, she was not only a strong rider but handled the gravel like an experienced rider. Hopefully we will see more of Abby in the future.
A few more miles and some tiny bulls later and we arrived in Malcolm.
Had the two little fellas known we were heading for some BBQ they might have given us more of the evil eye but Lippy's is hard to resist when in Malcolm.
Picked up J.D. and the sun coming out of Malcolm, both were good company.
Back in town after the start of the spring game, the only crowds we had to worry about were the crowded side streets full of all the parked cars but I"ll take dodging parked cars over dodging moving objects any day. Was a beautiful day for a football game as well as a bicycle ride.
Normally this would be the part of the blog where I would thank everyone who came out but once we got back to the shop it was such a nice day that some of us decided to continue and ride out to Eagle. As luck would have it, Dave was at the shop when we got there and he decided to roll out to Eagle with the remaining group. He brought his fresh legs with him and the speeds of the day continued on out to Eagle easily matching those we were pushing out to Malcolm. Looking at the numbers after the ride we managed a 13.6 mph average for 67 miles, on pudgy tire bikes, not too shabby. Not too shabby at all.
A quick spin out to Eagle, a brief stop at the Casey's and a quick spin back turned a 37 mile ride into a 67 mile ride but it was just too nice of a day to call it quits quite so early. Now we come to the time to say thanks to all those who made it out and a double thanks to those who decided to double down with me and get in another 30.
No ride this Saturday as a few of us Rastas are heading down to Leavenworth to race in another 100 mile gravel race, the Cool Hand Luke Gravel Grinder, is technically part two of the Graveluers Raid we did two weeks ago and they share some of the same roads and one of the same check points. Should be an equally good time as two weeks ago, hopefully the temps will be a little warmer this go round. While there may not be an official ride this Saturday, the weather is looking up for the weekend so don't hesitate to get together with friends and get a few miles under your tires.
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