Day Forty-six

Blackberry softserve with chocolate jimmies.

Joy, Pam Robb, John, Rick, & Phil enjoying lunch overlooking Canandaigua Lake.

The good ship lollypop

Went aground hard mid-morning in the rain at a place called Flatsville, NY. Actually I made the place up but the road gods were not smiling on us.

I was leading a huge group out of Hamburg trying to keep a decent pace but make sure I didn’t miss any turns. Some riders had gotten out early and Phil was nipping at my butt eager to blast into the stratosphere and catch them. Once we got to a nice 6 mile leg I moved over and he pulled the gang by. I tagged on for awhile but it wasn’t long before everyone busted-up on the first hill.

After that I rode with Judy and Paul, one of the new riders who is only with us until his home in Latham, NY. Judy was taking it easy on me and we were enjoying the scenery and wondering how long our dry spell would last. She put the Clawson hex on a seriously black cloud and I was amazed that we rode under it without a drop but the wet started soon after and by the time we got to the first SAG at 30 miles it was raining pretty hard.

We’ve been so lucky that I gambled with dark lenses this morning. The problem is that once they’re wet, the combination of the darkness and the wet makes it almost impossible to see anything. If I take the glasses off I can’t read my cue sheet or bike computer plus it changes my depth perception and it feels weird like I’m riding closer to the pavement. Anyway I chose to keep the glasses on which made it seem as though I was riding in a dark plastic wet silo.

Eight miles out of the SAG, riding alone, I got the flat on the rear that I expected yesterday. I could barely see as I pulled the tire off but I did find what I thought was a metal sliver imbedded in the outside. The inside felt fine and I was on my way only to go flat within another two miles. I reinspected and found another sliver and this time I booted the tire and it brought me home.

Of course by this time most people had gone ahead. The rain finally stopped and a healthy tailwind kicked in so I was motoring nicely and enjoying the ride. I passed a number of people who were also having problems with flats and both Freddy and Don had called the van for replacement tires…like I said, Flatsville. When it rains all the debris washes to the side of the road and sticks to the tires. But something else was going on today because when I got to the hotel and did a thorough inspection I found a number of tiny sharp rock pieces in the surface of both tires. I’m sure the “metal sliver” that caused my problem was really one of those rock slivers.

The second SAG was at Tom Wahl’s which is a small local chain with sandwiches, ice cream, and homemade root beer. Obviously we had to test the root beer floats and compare them to the White Turkey Richardson floats and the general consensus was that White Turkey was better. The also had black cherry softserve so I just had to test that with chocolate jimmies mmmm….

Still with a helpful tailwind out of the SAG with 25 miles to finish. About 15 miles out in the middle of nice rolling hills I noticed that the sky was getting rather ominous and I was regretting taking so much time enjoying Tom Wahl’s. About 10 miles out the sky was pitch black to the north and the wind was howling and twisting around from every direction trying to blow me off the road. Now it was a race to see if I could beat the weather. This was fun and the big fat drops were starting to fall the final two miles but I got lucky with the lights and coasted into the Super 8 (I haven’t figured out the “super” part?) just before I expected the heavens to open. Instead the sun came out and the storm missed us but it was a fun run.

Meanwhile Robb had gotten into town much earlier with Phil’s gang and they were all enjoying lunch by Canandaigua Lake.

Supposed to be magnificent weather tomorrow with short mileage and the best is that we’ve all been invited to Rick and Linda Ahlquist’s for dinner! I’m gonna stay out of Flatsville and make sure I get in early. I’m sure Robb’s warned them but 40 hungry bike jockeys for dinner??!

Today’s ratings: (the higher the better or easier)

Scenery: 7

Road conditions: 5 (would have been higher except for flats)

Grunt factor: 8