Del's Tuesday Ride Writeup

We fittingly started our season on April Fool's Day this year.
Weather was sunny and although only 54 degrees it was an
excellent evening to ride. Much better than the rain, snow and
hail (sometimes all at the same time) I had been commuting in
the last 5 days. After a lot of emailing and other sleuthing, I
have 45 riders listed by name, and I know there are still a few
I don't know about. Please remember that signing in (legibly)
is a requirement, an important part of keeping the rides legal.
It is also a huge help to me in writing up these recaps and just
trying to keep track of rider's welfare. I pretend like I don't
really care, but have been known to wait around in the parking
lot after dark for overdue riders. The people who read this
missive all sign in, but some of your friends perhaps do not
know they are supposed to, so please remind them.

Mike and Dave made up the first early group, on the road
before I arrived at about 5:45 to sign in a bunch of eagerly
waiting guys. More than a dozen left the park about 5 or 10
minutes before six, including a few that didn't realize this was
not the "main bunch". And finally we had nearly 30 in the
actual peloton. We were just a few minutes late and a bit
confused as quite a few riders arrived late due to flat tires
and other mishaps en route to the start. There were several
new riders, including several Portland Velo riders who I did
not meet and could not keep up with. It was great to see
Pat Murphy back on his bike after missing the last half of
2007 recovering from a high-speed close encounter with a
vehicle. Pat was riding strong again, but cautiously. A new
rider was Sam Huffman, one of the stronger randonneur
riders, who recorded an interesting gps track of today's ride.

We started at an easy pace, delayed by stop lights in the
first few blocks. As usual, the pace increased significantly
as we left the city and enjoyed the rolling open roads. The
pack split up on high-speed Mountain Road and the yoyo
effects of the Advance roller-coaster. I've been too busy
to scout or pre-ride any routes lately, so was surprised at
how bad the torn up roads were through Wilsonville. Thanks
to everybody for riding sensibly through that pothole minefield.
It was also the opportunity for a few of us off-the-back chasers
to finally regain contact for just a few minutes before getting
shelled again by the diminishing pack on Wilsonville Road.
I spent a lot of the ride chasing with Jay, within sight of the
pack but not even close to contact. Frustrating. Wish I
could tell you the play-by-play on the climbs, but I was out
of it. I did hear that anonymous Mitch Lee perhaps "won" the
kom, with John Hatfield, Ken James and Mark Steger close.
Thanks for the surprise regrouping at the top of McConnell
I got to see the fast guys again briefly. Thanks to all for a
fun ride on a pleasant evening.

Posted 2:37 PM by John Henry