MLFN Memorial ride, next installment

So I should back up a bit i suppose, start the story the way I normally do...

Leading up to the ride, I attempted to get the word out that it was going to be an informal but super fun ride, including the route.  I printed up a set of cue sheets and more or less memorized the first part of the ride and the middle section. Maybe I should have said the route is NOT marked and to make sure you up load it into your garmin or bring your own cue sheet, or buddy up with someone who knew where we were going.

Problem a bit was none of the fastest did any of that.  Which is fine, it worked out well enough, but that's sort of anyway something for next year I guess.

So spreading the word worked better than for the gallery opening i guess. but then people do seem to have more control over their weekends than their friday nights.

That friday, i forget, I think I was at the shop building a few bikes, it was a crazy day of running around picking up dropping off, doing stuff. So I headed in from home on the bike to get a bit of a warm up ride to try and shed the driving in the car all day legs.

And a friend dropped off their dog for us to watch while they were off till Sunday. The dog is a very wonderful beagle, sweet and likes people. Maybe too much. All it wanted to do was get in bed with us. Not happening. So what happened? I spent all night (up till 3am) working on trying to get him to shut up and stop whining. Then Erin took him out and he finally quieted down and I got 3 hours of sleep.

Three.

Just like tour de cure. no sleep.

Well some sleep, enough to survive but not enough to be at full capacity.  I at least forced myself to eat some food, drank some extra water, made a second coffee, and probably should have had a 3rd or 4rh. Definitely should have done what I did at the TdC and got a pair of XL black iced for the water bottles on the way.

Except i was out of time and running late. no time. Skratch into the bottles then. Grabbed a mocha Cliff shot, it was all the portable caffeine i had to pack. Will have to work.

I forget what i was running around trying to figure out.  The seat bad has decided to not have stitching on the seat post attachment so i kind of needed to find a few things to make it work. But hey, I had cookies. And I packed a pile of them. And they worked well. No fueling problems.  Decked out in the black Prov Velo Kit and packing the camera to document the start, but I forgot to get a photo before we rolled out.

Without a specific location to start and gather there were kind of two groups at the park, one at the south side by the road and the other at the northern point. We got it together and eventually wound up a the northern point.  People kept showing up, we got a fantastic turnout. Very happy with the size of the group.  A range of speed and skills but a good group to honor a great man.

The weather was awesome, sunny and warm but not oppressive or super windy. Pretty much perfect.

We said a few words at the start, and off we went. Rolling en mass to the hills of Rhode Island. And I guess by default or design or who knows I wound up up front, leading us out of town, trying to set a decent pace but not a brutal one. We wound up turning left and somehow PKS or Fox or one of the other guys who was feeling frisky and impatient with the pace ticked it up a touch and the first splits started to happen. I worked a bit to stay with the first one. Then dropped off to check on the gaps to the back.

It wasn't billed as a no-drop ride but I didn't want it to be a true smackdown, but i realized i needed to know the route better than I did.  But despite that we managed to re-group just enough to keep the bulk of the gang together going into the first stop.  The biggest navigational mistake was hopping on the MNSD route and not getting back off it where we were supposed to, but it was pretty cool riding up Douglas Hill with everyone, and down the backside up to 44.  Stopped for water and food at the little store there and decided it was taking a bit long and a few mentioned wanting to get back. So we improvised.

Seat of the pants route changing, with input from everyone we headed down 102 to 101.

Meanwhile Goldberg was the only one who put turn by turn directions into his garmin and he actually made the turn we missed and was off to follow final 50 miles of the route by himself.

101 takes us up to the highest point in RI.  Goal. Yes. But man it is a rolling pain in the ass to get there. I hung on for the first roller. Let a little gap open on the second. By the third I was pretty much not having any of the smackdown pace being driven at the front and Derdowski and JC's comment earlier about just chilling and having fun, echoed with every pedal stroke up the hills. Everytime i got to the top the group was further ahead and more spread out. And I just said fuck it and relaxed and timed it so those two caught up as we got to the top of the state.

I knew where we were going at this point. So I turned where we had all planned despite not seeing everyone. The three of us made our way down, glorious roads, almost no traffic, wonderful day.

Just felt awesome to be on the bike with friends, on an adventure. The caffeine headache was settling in pretty well but there was a planned coffee stop up there.

And this was awesome (and a bit downhill). No clue where the rest of the gang was, half expected them to come swarming up around us.

We rolled down and got to Route 6 and I really wanted to ride back through the corner I marshaled for the rhody race so we turned right and rolled west on 6 for a short bit until we got to Balcom rd. That gave us the chance to ride the length of Central and get a bit of dirt. AND to ride through the covered bridge.

The hills kind of sucked but we were riding together. As a group. And it was good.

Just as we got up to the big road who came flying by as we got to it? Rich and Dave, doing a good impression of a two man TT rotating pulls, i guess there was some urgency to push the pace a bit to get back in time.  But only those two.  I knew the original route went north off that road we saw them on so I figured they went that way while Rich and Dave took the most direct route into town. And we just poked around into town and sat down in the shade outside to down some refreshment.  Biggest iced coffee they had hit the spot. And we were off again. Rolling into town on probably the worst section of pavement in the whole state. but it was still fun and I've ridden plenty on that road with MLFN.

The three keys to the ride: highest point in RI, super hilly ride, Starr/Jenkes combo after riding 75 miles.

We get into town, roll through Kennedy Plaza and turn left onto Main by the church.
I didn't feel up to trying to do Starr and then Jenkes so we rode up South Court first, left on Benefit and recovered a bit as we rolled slowly to it. JC was encouraged to get the full experience, one because he's super strong and two he's never done it before, Derdowski and I have done it many times, no need, esp knowing what Jenkes looks like.

Down JC went, turned around, rolled back up Starr and then right up Jenkes. I followed and it is kind of hard to describe what you see when you make the right turn. It is unexpected and just boom SUPER STEEP. While not insanely long it is kind of just long enough that it isn't easy.

And then it was time to head back to the start and collect my bag with water, and extra cookies.  Swung through the shop to say hey and check in.

Time to ride home.  Got texts filtering in. Fox checked in, Snyder blew a cleat i guess and pedaled one legged back.

Despite the chaos, the directional uncertainty. The ride was amazing. It was what Mark would have been super proud of. Talking with Corey and Melissa I think we've got a plan to make it bigger and supported for next year. The route is awesome and needs some signage, maybe a shorter version for some to make it more inclusive, tie it in with the NBW maybe, ask for donations so we can make a gift to someone fighting cancer or something in Mark's honor, work a bit more at publicity beyond what we did this year.

Plans, big ones, but you know, everyone had an amazing time (well everyone I talked to) and the ride was awesome, so even if we fall flat and trip over ourselves and can't manage more than we did this year, it will still become an annual tradition.

I hope. That's the plan at least.

Seems that most of everyone who reads this thing was there. Was great to see Bart but I can't remember what band he said he found after starting to listen to a bunch of Alabama3.  anyway

Hopefully starting the day writing will keep it spinning in a positive creative direction.

heddwch
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