Crashing...It wasn't me, but I'll get to that in a moment.
After a somewhat less than restful night's sleep (not at all due to my roommate, Debbie. She was as quiet as a mouse), Day 2 of the OOA Team Camp began at the crack of 7:00. A bunch of us met at Berry Fields Cafe for breakfast. Some of you may know BFC is my favorite take-myself-to -lunch place. This was my first breakfast there. Their breakfasts are as good as their lunches.
Before I go further, I'd like to point out something that we cyclists are well aware of, but I don't think the general public often thinks about. That is the impact that cyclists have on the economy of the small towns. In our short stay in Centralia, we patronized a coffee shop, 3 restaurants and a hotel (and even a consignment shop--somebody forgot their pants). That's a chunk of change!
Back to the day...After breakfast (in which neither Debbie or I committed the faux pas of wearing our bike clothes to), we went back to the hotel, finished packing up, and checked out. My bike was a filthy mess. Fortunately, it was dry, so I was able to brush off a lot of the dirt (out on the sidewalk--not in the room). We all gathered out in front of McMenamens. Once again, our fearless President, Brad, went over the details of the day's ride back to Olympia. There was a slightly larger group doing the long route (92 miles) than the "short" route (59 miles--not that short). We all rode out of Centralia together. Debbie's legs were trashed from all the hills the day before, so she turned off at Old 99 and headed home from there. The rest of us continued onto Galvin Rd. on our way out to Lincoln Creek (and the first climb of the day). Along the way, Jean and I were both too hot in our jackets. We pulled off to remove them. The group got ahead, but I didn't care. I knew where we were going and I also knew the "short" route bunch would regroup up the road.
Sure enough, as we pulled up to the turn for Michigan Hill (that was the long/fast guys route--not ours), the short-routers were waiting. We continued on along Lincoln Creek to our turn up Manners Hill (not as steep at Michigan). We even worked a rotating paceline (with Michelle making sure the boys didn't push it too fast). Going up Manners it was everyone for themselves (or, in my case, by myself). At the bottom of the descent we turned onto Garrard Creek Rd. we regrouped once again and had a moment for a snack. About that time, the fast guys came around the corner from Independence Valley. Of course, they kept going.
We rolled on and resumed our rotating paceline. All of a sudden there was that unmistakable sound of a bike crashing to the ground. We all stopped and turned to see who had crashed. It was Jean. She was on the ground crying in pain. In a moment of someone braking, she had bumped the rear wheel of the bike in front of her. We happened to have Jen (an ER Physician) and Andy (a Chiropractor) with us (how handy is that???). They checked her out and we helped her to calm down and bring her adrenalin back to normal. Her hip and knee were the most painful. We knew the follow car for the long route was just up the road. Unfortunately, there was no cell service. Fortunately, a car came along and we asked them to flag down the follow car to have them come back for Jean. We got her up to move her to the side of the road where we promptly laid her back down as she was about to pass out. We elevated her legs which helped. Before long she was ready to sit up. She was feeling better and thought she could ride (her bike was okay). We helped her to her feet. That went well, so she got back on her bike. I was amazed!
We promptly had to climb a long hill. Michelle and I stayed with Jean. At the top, Trisha, who was driving the follow car, had made it back to us. We said our goodbyes to Jean, and they loaded her bike onto the bike rack. Unfortunately, she would not be going right home as the follow car still needed to stay with the long route riders. Fortunately, she was doing okay.
The rest of us continued on. We came down the other side of the hill. Michelle continued to keep the group from getting stretched out by asking the guys to slow up when someone was falling behind. It does make the ride much more pleasant. I can tell my strength has improved because I'm staying up with the group most of the time and, even more telling, I'm in my big ring in the front much more than I used to be able to do.
The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful. We went on a couple of short roads that I hadn't been on from Oakville to Moon Rd. I did enjoy the curvy, rolling section on Mima-Gate Rd. We rode Delphi to 62nd, Black Lake, over Sapp, and back to the park where we had started yesterday. We arrived at 1:20. Our average for the day was 17.2. The wind was not bad. We had only a spit or two of rain, but not much sun either. There were far less hills today. Except for Jean crashing, it was a pretty good day--almost 66 miles by the time I got home.
No comments:
Post a Comment