I wasn't going to let a broken frame ruin my 23 month streak of riding 200k rides, but time was running out for free weekends. Luckily we had a 58cm Bianchi Volpe on the sales floor. I got approval from the boss and went about doing a frame swap. With a new color scheme, and a mismatched fork, I set off on another
200k ride. This was another first "ascent" ride through the rural roads along the I-5 corridor. It's amazing how quickly the traffic dies down just a few miles from one of the busiest highways in the US. Josh, John, and myself celebrated President's day by breaking in this route (hopefully no more breaking for me). Josh was busy in the morning, so we decided on a 12:00 noon start.
It was another beautiful dry, but cloudy and cool day as we made quick work of the flat roads out of town. We fueled up in Centralia with an extra sandwich to anticipate not finding much food in the next 100 miles. The day was beautiful and the afternoon sun warmed us as we climbed the Alpha Centralia road. Mt Rainier poked out below the clouds and many of the trees were starting to show the first signs of spring. Along the way we got to make up the informational controls for the new route. It's always fun to joke about putting down questions like: "How many trees can you see from this intersection".
The hilly section around Mayfield dam made us work hard, but the quick descents were enjoyable as well as being on new roads. The exploration is one of my favorite parts of the ride. Adventuring down new roads on a bicycle is thrilling. After a few months of difficult cold and wet rides, I was relieved to have good weather and fun company. As we crested another hill, Mt Saint Helens poked it's flat top out of the clouds.
After pedaling through Mossyrock, the daylight began to end just as the first drops of rain began to fall. It must still be February in Washington. The drops turned into rain and we put our heads down and pedaled hard in the dark and rain. This did give me an opportunity to check out my new light in the rain. I just upgraded to the new Supernova E-3 pro Asymmetrical beam and enjoyed the wide beam it cast on the road. We worked through a pace line without much talk until we reached the final control in Adna. The hills were all behind us, just 30 flat miles to home. I was glad to get more calories in my body and ate a sandwich and Snickers.
After leaving the store, we had the pleasant surprise of cloudy skies instead of raindrops. We cruised back into town at 10:30 pm finishing another 200k lap around Olympia. I was exited to finish my second R12 without any more frames breaking.
The hilly section around Mayfield dam made us work hard, but the quick descents were enjoyable as well as being on new roads. The exploration is one of my favorite parts of the ride. Adventuring down new roads on a bicycle is thrilling. After a few months of difficult cold and wet rides, I was relieved to have good weather and fun company. As we crested another hill, Mt Saint Helens poked it's flat top out of the clouds.
After pedaling through Mossyrock, the daylight began to end just as the first drops of rain began to fall. It must still be February in Washington. The drops turned into rain and we put our heads down and pedaled hard in the dark and rain. This did give me an opportunity to check out my new light in the rain. I just upgraded to the new Supernova E-3 pro Asymmetrical beam and enjoyed the wide beam it cast on the road. We worked through a pace line without much talk until we reached the final control in Adna. The hills were all behind us, just 30 flat miles to home. I was glad to get more calories in my body and ate a sandwich and Snickers.
After leaving the store, we had the pleasant surprise of cloudy skies instead of raindrops. We cruised back into town at 10:30 pm finishing another 200k lap around Olympia. I was exited to finish my second R12 without any more frames breaking.
Hey! Cool blog, Ian! Bummer about the frame but new stuff is fun too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing,
Mercedes