Some rides are better than others. Some are simply hilarious.
Yesterday was the latest edition of the Annual Audax 200K. We had a modest sized group, of happy riders. Start time was a cool 07:30. Ready to roll, the group consisted of Chris, Cindy, Lisa, Amy, Teresa, Ty, and me. Our good and great friend Ed could not ride with us, but he managed to come down to Warm Springs and join us for lunch. (More on that shortly.)
Before I go much farther, everyone finished, and did so in fine style.
The weather was most cooperative. It was pleasantly cool at the start. It never got truly hot, as we had some good cloud cover for the warmest part of the day. We missed out on rain. We did, in fact have some tail winds, and they were with us for a large part of the day.
On this particular ride, the joking and cajolery started in the parking lot, and never truly abated. Bacon, fudge, doughnuts, pralines, and the absence of the letter “C,” were all topics of great mirth. We had loud and humor, and louder humorous songs. Sometimes the laughter was so contagious and outrageous that it was hard to keep the bikes in a straight line. (We will draw a discrete curtain across the scene now. This is, a pg blog, after all.)
This ride covers a lot of ground, much of it pretty demanding terrain. I mention that because we had a mechanical problem. These are rare. But we had one. A bit before we reached the town of Pine Mountain, Teresa suffered a broken rear derailleur cable. That meant that her rear gear set immediately self-shifted to the highest (hardest) possible gear. This with the tough climbs up into Pine Mountain just ahead. Suddenly, she had three gear choices, hard, harder, and incredibly hard. She managed to tough it out, and stayed on the bike until we got into Pine Mountain.
Once in at our planned stop, I was able to diagnose the problem. The best I could do, with a field expedient repair, was to limit her rear gear set to a mid-range gear. That was better than before, but still, she had the mountain ahead. The best we could do was to give her a gear about five ranges higher than her lowest. She elected to try the mountain.
I’ve seen lots of folks completely stopped on that mountain, and they had full working drivelines. Teresa made it, and did so with style.
I mentioned that our good friend Ed came down to Warm Springs to meet us for lunch. He brought his bike with him. I was able to rob the shifter cable and derailleur hardware from Ed’s bike, and transfer the parts to Teresa’s. That helped.
Ed deserves high praise for this selfless act of generosity. Bravo, Ed!
Of course, the repair was somewhat makeshift, and for technical reasons (which I won’t discuss here) it partially failed in the next 15 miles. That left Teresa with a slightly better situation than before, but still without the ability to access the lowest of her gears.
So what did the lady do? She simply soldiered on! Without complaint. On what had become, essentially a singlespeed bike! And, she made it! Wow!
I should mention Ty too. This was, by far, the longest ride he’d ever done. Ty is preparing to do a cross-continent, charity fundraising tour. He did just fine with us, and I don’t doubt that he will do well in his future endeavor.
I should also like to add that the fun and merriment continued right ont throughout the long afternoon.
This was one truly grand ride, with an outstanding bunch of folk. I can’t recall when last I had so much fun on a ride. The camaraderie was terrific, spirits high, and a splendid time was had by all. Bravo!
Oh yes! It never rained either.
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