Pumpkinvine Ride

Well, gentle bikers and kind readers of this blog, that is all you will be doing on this blog entry - reading. I forgot to take my camera with me on the Pumpkinvine Ride Alex, her sister Brooke, and I did yesterday in Goshen, IN.

I would paint a picture in your minds of the beauty we saw yesterday; if only I had a better command of the English language. Instead, I will be brief and suffice to say that we had a great time. Alex and Brooke rode the 26 mile route while I rode the 104 mile route.

I actually rode the 116 mile route because I missed the first loop to Middlebury the first time around. Fortunately, after 6 miles, I realized I missed the loop, and rode back to pick it up.

It was great to see so many people out yesterday - there were over 1,000 riders. Lots of kids, the future of our country - on bikes. Lots of older folks. I saw two gentlemen that could not be a day under 90 years. One elderly lady could barely walk, but she could pedal away on a recumbant trike.

I rode for a while with a couple from Columbus, OH, who recognized my TOSRV jersery. I could not keep up with them, but I caught them at several SAG stops. They started calling me "tosrv-guy", and would say, "hey, there's the tosrv-guy" as they zipped past me several times.

The ride ended in classic style. The final 30 miles of the route steered us directly into a strong northwest headwind. Just before the final SAG stop was a long, long hill that got steeper near the top. Add the headwind, and it was a killer. I managed to reach the summit at 9.5 mph, but there were several riders stopped at the top wondering why they hadn't yet reached the final SAG.

I'm getting a lot of satisfaction in biking this year. This ride epitomized my biking experience: we don't know what we can accomplish until we are really tested. But if we really work at it, we can overcome that summit in the headwind. I hope all of you have great rides and are challenged regularly.

Keep on riding!