OMG this was one of the most fun rides of the year, hands down, except that Bud wasn't there
. We kept him in mind though as we rolled up the roadies in some pavement and smoked em like it was crack.
Mark Leuck and I formed the lowracer demolition squad and heaed out. We had intended to roll out slowly and warm up, allowing Terry to hang with us a while, but the excitement of so many rabbits got our hackles up and we were gone. Somewhere just shy of mile 20 out average was over 25mph accorinding to Mark's GPS. Mile 40 we were still at 21, and then we hit some pretty serious hills and our legs got the better of us. Also, at that point there were no roadies left to chase.
Mile 40 to 65 we saw NO ONE in front of us to chase, until we stopped at a rest stop and some got ahead of us, only to be retaken. The last 5 miles we started overtaking the slowpoked from the 30 mile route.
We finished just under 20mph average thanks to lots of stopsigns at the end. Not shabby for my big bout of bronchitis and 3 weeks off the bike.
We saw a lot of bents, including Ken and Peggy "The Machine" Strada. The weather was perfect, the scenery was great, traffic was very low, and the roads were pretty good too. No debris, just one gravel stretch. The rest stops were frugal but friendly, and I didn't need anything more than the banana anyway. Hot dogs at the end of the ride. Very well done and I'll be back next year.
I'll have pics as soon as mark sends them on.