"The Chase"

2019 Outdoor Season: Ride #6

-Route: Center Loop

-Miles: 21.0

-Time: 1:23

-Ave Speed: 14.9 mph

Weather:

-Hazy sun to clouds

-54 degrees

-Wind 10 mph

Season Total Miles: 97.0

The Story

What a fun little ride today!

I'll start out with the fact that there was another first of the fresh new season today, as it marked the first ride wearing open-finger riding gloves. At 54 degrees outside it actually began to feel a little like springtime.

I'll call this route the Center Loop, since Center is the name of road I use at one end of the ride to make the basic rectangle that the route is.

Tailwind was at my back riding out, nothing major but enough to make me think about the fact that it would feel colder and harder to maintain my pace coming back home the other way INTO the wind.

And it was that very wind that inspired me to take on what I'll call "The Chase" out there today.

Approaching a right-hand turn to take me back home I could see up ahead of me a group of riders, who, one by one made a left turn onto the same road I would be turning on to. There looked to be 4-5 riders.

I wished to myself that the timing would have been such that I was closer to them at the time, thinking I could perhaps catch a wheel and draft through some of the breeze that was now starting to get tiresome.

But alas, when I made the turn I saw them pretty far up ahead of me. Still I wondered....maybe I could catch them, use them as a carrot to push me through this section of the ride. But do I spend my energy trying (and perhaps failing) to catch them then regret it for the rest of the ride with no matches left in the tank?

I decided to just put my head down and pedal. What would be would be.

Well, it turns out these guys were not hammering. It seemed to me I was holding pace with them, then even gaining a bit. Being the big rider I am, I have never done well going up hills, and I seemed to lose some ground to them going up one such hill, nothing major but enough to slow me down and increase the gap.

I almost gave up the chase after that. But I bounced back and felt fine. Pursuit continued. Gains being made.

Then to my surprise, I caught the group with no help of any sort of stop sign. I flat out caught the group, which was great.

As I came up on the left of the last rider in the group I said something about how much easier it was riding out the opposite direction with the wind. The rider's reply really surprised me.

"Hi Phil," he said.

What the what?

Somebody knows me out here on a country road in the middle of nowhere?

Yup.

As I looked over I thought I recognized Mr. Paul Kordus, a local rider of solid reputation with a lot of miles and group rides under his belt. In the past Paul and I have ridden together a few times, when he's up for a much slower and shorter ride than he is used to!

In fact it was Paul who kindly reached out to me after we moved to the Fox Valley to give me a few ideas for different routes to take. I still use them today.

Paul, who is known for taking pictures on group rides, pulled out a camera and snapped a few from out in front of me. If he sends me a copy I'll post it up here later.

We were able to chat a bit as I rode with the group for a few miles before they hung a right and I went straight. It was fun to have a surprise meeting like that while on a ride. Not only was I able to catch the group, but I also bumped into an old riding buddy.

The final climb of the day over a bridge was killer. My legs were in no shape to even begin to think about trying to get out of the saddle to get up and over the thing and into downtown Neenah. Nope, I simply survived the bridge, surprised at how difficult it was for me.

Still, at only 21 miles, I had a lot of fun today. This was the first ride of the season that felt like a good old fashioned road adventure. Almost 100 miles in this season now, but tough times could be ahead. I hear the forecast says we could get 8" of snow this week.

I put my backup bike away on Saturday....and it's NOT on the trainer. I refuse to go back to that at this point in the season. Heck, what do those weather people on TV know anyway? Maybe they're wrong. Maybe it'll just be rain.

One can hope.