1st Annual NYBC River Ride, 45 miles
My first big ride on the newly tuned Cannondale.
The tuning did the trick (thanks Bert!), the ride was nearly silent and smooth. Well, as smooth as an early generation aluminum frame can provide. Which isn’t really. I think I need to move the seat forward and tilting up the hoods would be a little more comfortable too.
The river ride was the first annual for NYBC. It seemed a little disorganized. Perhaps some more volunteers would have helped. The route choice was less than thrilling–we actually road by a scrap metal dump approximately four stories tall. And, many of the roads were in poor condition and heavily trafficked. It was cold, too; perhaps the coldest day in a two week stretch. There was no set time to start, so we never actually rode with anyone else, just John and me (and Steve and Paul in the beginning, but they dropped off for a more leisurely 25 mile course). Sure we caught a group early on after the first rest stop, but realized they were cruising at 3-4 mph slower than we wanted to, so we left them. That one guy, the 7 footer, or so it seemed, had a beautiful Legend Ti Serotta, yellow and blue.
Highlight: when a gaggle of 6 or 8 white geese casually sauntered across the road in front of us. Two of them, obviously the self-appointed crossing guards of the group, hissed at us ’til we passed.
Lowlight: the one and only hill on the course truly put the new gearing on my Cannondale to the test. The gears were fine, I wasn’t. It took about 3 or 4 miles for me to recover–with the help of a Mocha Mocha gel from John.
In retrospect, I think John and I would have enjoyed Henry’s last minute ride that same morning starting at Exit 12 BSNB.