Sunday, September 20, 2009

New Riding Buddy

Michael, of Ear to the Breeze blog, was up in Fort Wayne yesterday. He contacted me to see about riding, so we decided to ride the Huntington Bicycle Challenge Scenic Tour. If you want to see some beautiful photography, check out his blog. He takes some of the most beautiful landscape photos I've seen.

Here is Michael at work on the bike. Obviously, the photo he is taking here will be one of his poorest photos.


The start is the only part of the ride I didn't like. We were lined up behind the USA Cycling categorized racers and behind the corporate challenge riders. We weren't allowed to start until well after the other two groups had left. We were standing, with our bikes, at the start line for over 1/2 hour, while the ride organizers blathered into their Mr. Microphone. Otherwise the ride was very well supported and very scenic.

After the halfway point, we turned into a stiff east headwind. Micheal and I took turns pulling each other for about 12 miles. We maintained a decent pace despite the wind, but it wasn't until we had finished that we both realized we were going too fast for either's comfort (i.e., I was too proud on the bike to admit that I was sucking air, BIG time!).

Michael is a very strong rider, with great leg strength for wind and hills. It was fun to ride with him and look forward to many fun rides ahead.

Happy riding!

3 comments:

rlove2bike said...

Sounds like you are being modest. With the speed you have been riding as of late, plus the 100 miler's this year, you would have most people sucking air.

Mike J said...

It's tough finding your groove with other riders. Sounds like a good ride though.

Apertome said...

Great post. And you are being modest, our pace into the wind was too much for me as well. I will definitely let you know when I'm in the area again.