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Saturday's Pace Line |
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Team Bikeman -
Race Reports
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Written by Vince Jones
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Friday, 17 November 2006 |
Saturday's Pace Line
Antelope Island, UT
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It had been close to a month since I had been on the bike when Troy invited me to ride this past weekend with some of the Bikeman team. My kitchen remodel is far enough along that I felt comfortable enough to take a Saturday afternoon off and ride the bike. I joined Bikeman teammates Dave Leikam, Cory Marler, Troy Nye and former Bikeman rider Warren Worsley for a road ride.
The plan was to meet at Troy's house at 12:30 to do an out and back to Antelope Island. This promised to be a 66 mile round trip with a very short side trip up a 23% grade. Yes I said 23%. I was anxious to get some miles on my new Panaracer Elite Z tire. I had ordered it several weeks ago but with all of the construction going on in the kitchen I had not used it yet. With the 12:30 meting time I took the opportunity to install some more baseboard in the kitchen. This left my back a little tight and sore when I arrived at Troy's house. I thought that this was going to be a very long uncomfortable ride starting out with a sore back. Then I remembered my Greyhound Juice Muscle Warming Salve and I spread it all over my lower back. This was the first time I had used it anywhere but my legs and it worked liked a champ. My sore back went away and never returned. It will go on my back before every long ride from now on. Since I had not been riding much the last month I applied a liberal amount of Greyhound Juice Anti-Friction Cream. I knew I would be tender and sore if I did not protect myself.
Troy, Dave, Warren and myself started out from Troy's house and worked our way through western Davis county. We picked up Cory on the road and set a great pace. The weather could not have been kinder. Sunny skies, not much of a breeze and temp's hovering near 60 degrees. When we reached the causeway to the island we paid our state park entry fee and joked with the gate attendant a bit. Then it was back on the bike and off to the island. About halfway across the causeway I started dropping off the back of the pace line. The guys held up a bit and I caught on. We picked up the pace again and I was off the back in no time. Then I could feel the rear tire start to rumble a bit. Darn! got a flat. I stopped to check it out and spotted the thorn. I was just starting to fix the thing when Troy and Dave came back to see what was up. Warren and Cory had stopped a little further up the road. Troy used his cell phone to call Cory and let him know what was up. Cory could not believe I had picked up a thorn out there because nothing grows out there. Just as Cory was telling Troy this on the cell phone Cory's tire relieved itself. He had picked up a thorn too. I got my bike back together and the three of us just started off when Dave see's his front tire going down. We stop and Dave fixes his tire. Troy looks his tires over real close and finds a thorn that has not quite worked it's way through. Finally after 3 flats and one near miss we are back on the road again. We reach the island and Troy, Dave, Cory and Warren attack the first hill and dust me again. I watch them go up the road and see Warren get dumped off the back after a while. This is the last time I see Cory, Dave and Troy until they reach the end of the road and turn back. I can see Warren in front of me for a while and I keep pushing on until I catch him. I am rolling along by myself at a decent pace so I go by as he is preparing to take a nature break. This section of the road is nice. There is very little traffic and the wild life is great. There was a small heard of antelope not far off of the road, a stray buffalo or two, many different birds of prey, lots of geese and marsh birds.
On the return trip we made the climb up to the mountain bike trail head and the 23% grade. It is a very short climb but it was tough. I looked up the road and spotted Cory zig zagging to cut the grade some. I was thankful I had the triple chain ring. The return trip down the hill had a nasty little surprise. The slight turn we made on the climb up turned into a hard right turn during the descent. We all flirted with over shooting it. After the descent back to the main road my legs started to cramp up. The climb must have pushed them over the edge. I was wishing I had applied some Greyhound Juice Muscle Warming Salve to my legs in addition to my back. I was soft peddling when Warren got his flat. That made four out of the five us with flats for the day. We got serious about getting home after the last flat. We had spent more time off of the bikes than we expected and we were losing our daylight. We split from Cory so he could head home and the four of us headed back to Troy's house just as it was getting dark.
Vince
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; "click to enlarge")
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