Inaugural FAWOFYW of 2011

Find A Wheel Or Find Your Way is actually bit of a misnomer, at least until slightly later in the season. It's the Western PA Wheelmen's Tuesday night fast ride out of North Park, and is usually spirited, but no-drop, until at least May. Once the switch gets thrown, though, it's pretty much Katie bar the door...

Anyway, I managed to make it out after work. Fred was leading the ride; myself and Tony were the sole participants, as the weather was cold and threatening enough to dissuade many of the regulars.

'Twas really pleasant...it'd been a while since I had a nice fast group ride, and the riding style was a good change of pace from A) commuting and B) sustainable stupid-distance.

The route was an abbreviated version of the usual; rather than head down State Gamelands and back up Conway Wallrose or Hoenig, we took Mingo to Knob via Pleasant Hill. Skipped Tech 21, too, which no-one seemed too distraught over. ;-)

Nice to blow the cobwebs off. The compact crank worked well, and I've finally gotten all of the fender rub adjusted away, so I guess it's time to trim stays and semi-permanently affix wire for tail light and whatnot. Just in time for the Pittsburgh Randonneurs Spring 200K this Saturday...

And the year began with a meh...

I fully intended to ride the Icycle Bicyle, the traditional New Year's Day ride of the WPW. Out of the house by 10:15; plenty of time to roll down to REI for the 11 AM departure. Rolling into downtown, I exited the Point and, playing the role of law-abiding cyclist to the hilt, stopped at the light and waited for it to turn green. Crossing light goes red, cross traffic (all one car) clears the intersection, I step on the pedal, and take off. Midway through the intersection, I realize that either I've mysteriously dropped into a lower gear than I possess, my hub has decided to swing both ways (so to speak), or my chain has rejected fascist unity in exchange for a regime driven by the needs of the individual links to go their own way and do their own thing. Bugger.

The master link had blown; no big deal, as I habitually carry both a replacement link and a chain tool in my spares bag. Sadly, my New Years resolution to break bad habits apparently extended to said spares habit as well...I had neither replacement link nor chain tool.

It was a lovely hike to REI, and I got to watch the Icycle Bicycle contingent go whizzing by on the Jail Trail.

This bodes well for the new year's cycling...

Digging KOAL with the Wheelmen

KOAL == King Of All Loops. (Don't ask, not my idea, had nothing to do with it, NOT thinking of doing a route called "King's Mother" in response...)

The day started off terrifyingly chilly, considering that it's the first week in frickin' July. Not a bad thing; it was kinda novel to break out the arm warmers for the first time in weeks, at least for the morning ride to North Park.

There, a good few dozen riders had gathered; a dozen or so on the "fast ride" of the 70-mile loop, another dozen on the "slow ride", and a whole bunch on the 45-miler. I made the mistake of trying to hang with the likes of Chris and Mark; darn good fun, but it's a much better idea to get my head handed to me on a 35-mile training ride than a 70-mile road ride. Oops.

Fun ride, all things considered. Here's the route, preserved for posterity.

Tuesday Ride

Worked from home, so I took advantage of the opportunity to swing out to North Park for the 5:30 Wheelmen club ride. This is billed as a development ride, so the basic idea is "no-drop, but plan to work hard in order to improve".

Good turnout; a dozen riders, most of whom I'd met before, ranging from "solid" to "You're a high school freshman, and your cadence is 180?" I did take some pride in being the only guy with fenders, a rack, lights, and a dynamo hub, though.

The route was fun...out Pearce Mill, then up Logan to Babcock, out the Red Belt to Ridge, and back to Mars, then return via Babcock. One accident on the outskirts of Mars...John caught a wheel on the shoulder on a fast descending curve, and took a pretty good tumble; fortunately, Drew and myself (the next two riders) weren't in tight formation behind him, so managed to avoid a three-man pileup. After making sure that John and bike-de-John were functional, we made our way back up Babcock at a more sedate pace. Heh...except for the half-dozen of us that decided the rest of the way into the park from the Red Belt should be, let us say, vigorous. Drew, Jay, Dave, Jim, Chris, and myself had all kinds of good fun getting the heart rate up for the last few miles.

I was pleased...got a good workout, felt great afterwards, and didn't completely suck nor slow down the group. Still need work on fast descents (especially blind curving ones) and climbing, but I'm not as bad off as I was afraid. Guess that daily commute, even if less-than-vigorous, helped prevent some winter loss of fitness.

WPW Fally Rally

Smashing success, apparently. I couldn't tell, 'cause I was too busy pushing for my first seven-hour century. Sadly, I ended up at 7:10, but a lot of that was due to encouraging/BSing with other riders and spending w-a-a-y too much time at the rest stops.

The day started with vast quantities of waffles, plus a cream-filled donut and bottle of Gatorade from the Sheetz up on 19 in Perrysville. After a leisurely pedal to North Park, I made the brilliant decision to stand around and freeze for half-an-hour, nicely negating all benefit of pre-warming the muscles before the century ride kicked off at 7.

Not the most formal of starts, nor what you'd call "Massed"; more of a dribble of departing riders. Those of us who gave a rat's patoot about time rapidly sorted ourselves into "five of us" and "everyone else", via the nice relaxing climb up Babcock, which functioned admirably as a Potter-esque Sorting Hat in that regard. We headed out to Valencia, then Mars/Evans City Rd as far as Callery, until bearing off into the hinterlands via Walters Station Rd. Eventually, the group of 5 became a group of two, a group of me, and a group of two, in that order, and in rapidly expanding anti-proximity.

The first 35-mile loop brought us back to North Park, where the plan called for a quick refuel and off onto the metric loop. The metric was the classic fall rally route, with a couple of slight detours due to construction: Franklin Rd out to Evans City, then Harmony, Zelienople, and out to Riverside High School for the first rest stop. Elwood City, River Rd, and a delightful detour on Gillen near the Fox Run golf course, then the usual climb up Bologne Valley/Foster/Glendale and down to Brush Creek Park for the second rest stop. Finally, the always-delightful hammer back to Cranberry along Brush Creek/Glen Eden/Unionville/Graham School, then meandering through Thorn Hill to the Red Belt and back to the park.

Things of note: we had about 100(!) attendees, of which 50(!) were new members. COOL. Also, there were four-count-'em-four recumbents on the ride; myself, John Strait, and Sean Monaghan, as well as a gentleman whose name perpetually eludes me, but who just picked up a nice Giro 20 at Rob's shop.

Good fun. If I hadn't spent so much time messing about at rest stops, I could easily have brought it in around 6:45; this leads me to think interesting thoughts about sub-6 hour centuries.