47.5 miles, a dog chase and a Baptism

Saturday was a great day for a ride. A high school friend of mine, fellow Cajun and now Godfather to our third child, was in for the weekend. We headed out to meet the Thorns and Roses at 7:50 ish, and rolled into the Caribou Coffee parking lot just as the cyclists were pulling out, so no time for the usual meet and greet.

Andre (sporting my borrowed orange 97 steel LeMonde) pulled alongside Love Train and got acquainted with the rules of the ride as Love Train shouted / sang his own rendition of "I'm an inconsiderate cyclist" when a car had to pass him by going into the other lane. Dwight shuffled back and forth between his guest and the other cyclists as he tried to find out the plan for the morning. Captain Carbon uncommittingly said we'd likely split into two groups once we reached the lake, however with only 10 in the group and lacking most of the Hammerheads, Dwight figured we'd stay together.

As the Thorns and Stems pulled onto Carpenter Upchurch, Andre was surprised that the group was double file on such a narrow road with the speed of the cars coming by. Dwight noted that this happened quite a bit that day, even on some of the highways, and the group might need a "talking to" by GOG.

With the sprint line in sight several cyclists pushed to the front to get the first race underway but Dwight spoiled the party by jumping way too early with only Captain Carbon chasing him down. Of course Captain caught up and taunted Dwight all the way to the finish. - GOG owes Captain $100.

The ride made the usual route from there going up Upchuck, Dwight opted out of that one, and on toward the lake.

At the rest-stop the group discussed what they would do with their winnings on the day, and Captain Carbon was strong-armed by Patti-melt and her minions into doing Col de Lystra.

Everyone made it, with Andre bringing up the rear due to the extra 10 pounds of steel he was pulling. :)

On the way back to the lake Dwight decided the group needed another sprint and designated the Bridge as the finish line. Since he was the only one that knew about this new sprint he won easily! - GOG owes Dwight $100.

Right before the Jig-jog at the strawberry patch Andre hit a wall and Dwight slowed to pull his buddy back to the group. At that point a dog came running down a drive after the two of them. (Likely stirred by Lovetrain) They both hit the gas but the dog was gaining fast and as it caught up to Andre the strangest thing happened. Going against it's "survival of the fittest" instincts, it passed up Andre and kept running for Dwight. It must have been the bright blue socks. :) Of course the dog could only run for so long and eventually pulled off leaving Andre and Dwight to catch up with the group.

On the last county-line sprint several Stems went into cahoots and successfully blocked-in Captain Carbon so that he couldn't win the sprint - again. - GOG owes someone else $100.

On the way back, Dwight and Andre left the ride a little early to get back to the family that was preparing for the Baptism that night.

Upcoming Rides to remember:

- Friday October 2nd - LIVESTRONG Day ride starting at SAS for SAS employees with all others joining along Weston Parkway for 20 to 25 miles through Cary and Morrisville. For more details visit http://www.livestrongaction.org/node/191464

- Sunday October 25th - Cary Cycling Celebration and Jimmy V Ride for Cancer Research

Donate, Ride or Volunteer via http://www.firstgiving.com/dwightmouton

- Dwight.

LIVESTRONG DAY EVENT

Fellow Cyclists,

I’m adding the SAS Friday Ride on October 2nd as part of LIVESTRONG Day – a global day of action to spread the word about the impact of cancer and push for more resources to eliminate the disease.

This is our normal Friday ride, but let’s wear yellow to raise awareness.

Please pass this on to any and all cyclists in the community.

Here is the link to the “event”: http://www.livestrongaction.org/node/191464

*****
A message from Livestrong:

Cancer has a huge impact on communities all over the world – all of us know someone whose life has been touched by the disease. But we’re not doing enough to combat cancer effectively. That’s why we’re hosting an event on LIVESTRONG Day – to join an international grassroots effort to push for change.

I’m excited about LIVESTRONG Day and this important event, but it won’t be a success if you don’t join me! Here are the details:

SAS Friday Ride
Join in Via Weston Parkway
Cary
Oct 2, from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm

The Livestrong Foundation is tracking the event so please RSVP – it only takes a few moments and a few clicks:

http://www.livestrongaction.org/node/191464

*****

Thanks and remember to forward this to everyone with a bike and the guts to join us.

Col de Lystra

I finally did it. There's been so much talk about the Lystra hill since I moved here that I finally had to do the ride to see what all the fuss was about. Before I get to Lystra though let's back up a bit.

I want to thank V. for holding down the fort so that I could ride on Saturday. Since the Saturday Thorns and Roses rides are usually longer I don't go so that I can help around the house with projects, kids etc. With the long weekend going on, Saturday was not as a big deal and the weather was absolutely perfect.

At 7:15 I rode to Caribou's and had plenty of time to chat with the group since our leader GOG, was a little slow on getting ready. The group was HUGE this week. Almost rivaling the Cycling Spoken Here Sunday ride. There was no way he was going to get everyone's name down, although I think he tried. One rider of note was visiting family from my old stomping ground, Winston Salem. He's on the Wake Forest race team so we were looking forward to some good sprints.

We all headed out by about 7:40 and stayed together until Carpenter Upchurch. The high speeds kicked it and since I tried to stay up front I didn't notice that the group had completely splintered. By the time we got to Morrisville Carpenter only half the group was left, with the others no where to be seen. Unfortunately, Wake Forest opted to stay back with his family, so the anticipated sprints weren't going to happen. Sporadic Steve decided to stay back and try to get the second group to catch up while Captain Carbon lead the rest of us out to Lystra at a slower pace. Eventually we realized that the second group wasn't coming so we picked up the pace and opted to wait at the designated rest stop.

After 10 or 15 minutes at the store, GOG and the group pulled in and we decide to spit in two again with one group doing the Col de Lystra and the other opting for a less hilly return.

So we started the climb.



It really wasn't as hard as everyone was trying to make it out to be, but was definitely steep, forcing everyone to stand on the pedals to get to the top. I made it to the top in the middle of the pack, too far back to see who got the mountain points for the morning.

Now it got interesting. As soon we reached the light at the top of Lystra it changed leaving half of us stuck. A few risked running the light but this was a highway, so me and 3 others waited a bit. After we finally crossed we could still see the pack ahead so I wasn't too worried. Then I realized that we weren't going fast enough to catch up and about the time I was going to say something the guy up front took a right that I wasn't expecting. The second guy in line said, "aren't we supposed to go back to the store?" The guy out front had no clue what we were talking about ... he wasn't part of our ride!

Joe (new Motobecane) and I had mistakenly teamed up with a different set of riders and were now on our own. Initially we tried to go all out to get back to the store and catch up but apparently Capt'n Carbon hadn't noticed that he left two of the troops on the wrong side of the HWY and had pushed the group onward. Joe and I decided to take a slightly shorter route home but still ended up with about 45 miles on the day.

Instead of going back to Caribou's, I headed home and got started on a great 3-day weekend with the family. Hopefully Joe was able to give Cope some grief for leaving us hanging. :)

- Dwight

Long time no blog

Sorry about the absense, just working and living life more than blogging lately.

Just to get caught up I was able to ride and run last week but haven't been putting on the same number of miles. I'll need to pick it up toward the end of the month to make sure I don't have any problems on the Jimmy V ride. Speaking of which the fundraising has gone great, only need $40 to reach my goal. Thanks to everyone who has donated.

I plan on doing a solo lunch ride today, so please watch out for the guy in the white jersey on the black and white Fuji Team. :)

Don't have a good pic of me on the bike yet, so this stock image will have to suffice. I need to get someone to take an action shot so that I can use it on twitter / facebook / blogs etc.

The Fuji is still doing great by the way. Other than the rear tire wearing too fast there have been NO issues (somebody knock on wood). I was thinking about getting a different seat for the longer rides, but that might affect other things so I'll hold off for a while.

Everyone have a great rest of week.

Dwight.