JayC
11-11-2006, 07:32 PM
What a great ride we had today! For those of you that made the trip out to Clayton, I hope you enjoyed the ride. The wind was up quite a bit but the temperature was perfect after about an hour of riding. Looks like people have bought more dogs since the last time the Cyclepaths rode this route. Might be worth making a note of for the spring time.
Also of interest, one of the owners of the Flowers' property, I think it was Rebecca Flowers, came up to the cars as we were about to head out and said they are really going to be building up the crossroads there at 42 and Buffalo in the upcoming months. She told us that the average car count for that stop light was 12,000 a day and they were projecting it to be 20,000 by 2008. Not really what I wanted to hear. She said they were construction bike trails in the new developments.. I don't think she understood the distances we ride. She also wanted to get a photo of the group to put on the website but didn't have a camera. Guess they'll be touting cycling as a selling point as they build the area up to where you can't cycle it anymore :)
Anyway, back to the ride. Every was keeping a great pace today. Mike D, Karen and I broke away from the others early on and made a stop in Micro. We were averaging 18-19 out to Micro and I didn't really think we'd see the other group until the rest stop in Pine Level but they rode into Micro not more than 5 minutes behind us. They had been sandbagging with the "We only ride at about 12 MPH." I guess Mike D had some kind of incident leaving the convenient store. He, Karen and I started out and I looked back and saw him coming out of the parking lot, Karen and I rode a little ways up Main Street and looked back and Mike was no where to be seen. One of the other guys said he needed to make a mechanical adjustment so Karen and I assumed Mike had stopped to help out. Finally after a few minutes the group came along and we found out Mike had had a small crash. A Bandaid and brake adjustment and we were on our way again.
Rolled into Pine Level and stopped at the usual convenient store. I arrived a couple of minutes ahead of everyone else and was taking off my helmet, etc to use the bathroom when an old codger got out of his car and was talking to his friend saying "Those damn bikers wouldnt get out of the way. I thought I was going to have to run one over." He got an earful from me regarding the North Carolina state law and how it relates to cycling on the road which led to a few not so pleasant exchanges between he and I. Then we got the stink eye from everyone else.. at least it seemed that way.
Left Pine Level with the intent of not getting run over by any old men and the wind had REALLY picked up. We were averaging right at 18MPH up to that point and the wind really dropped us back. Karen was strong today, pulling along at 19-20 MPH for extended distances. That new fit seemed to have done wonders for her. I took the front on the road I hate on Zack Attack, SR 2366, which always seems to have brutal, brutal winds. It wasn't too bad today, thankfully but it was rough in other parts. Once we got on Pittman, Karen fell back and little and Mike D and I rode on. He and I rode into Shoeheel and we stopped at the "convenient store" and waited for everyone to regroup. The old dude that pumps has there came out and talked to us for a bit. From there, we headed out and rode together until Old Dam Rd (Which is still unmarked) as I didnt want anyone to miss that turn like we did when we road that ride that replaced the Hope Springs Eternal route.. we ended up doing an extra 12 miles or so since we missed that turn.
Once on Old Dam, Mike D and I left the rest of the group and rode in together. Jordan Narron was the usual fun climb. I ended up with a moving time of 2:30:54 and a speed of 17.1. My average heart rate for the ride was at about 73% so it was a pretty good workout. I hit 97% coming up Jordan Narron.
Here's a link to the ride data if anyone is interested.
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/email/accept.mb?senderPk.pkValue=6233&unitSystemPkValue=2&episodePk.pkValue=1622586&backgroundDatasourcePk.pkValue=11
Hopefully we have a few more days like that over the winter!
Also of interest, one of the owners of the Flowers' property, I think it was Rebecca Flowers, came up to the cars as we were about to head out and said they are really going to be building up the crossroads there at 42 and Buffalo in the upcoming months. She told us that the average car count for that stop light was 12,000 a day and they were projecting it to be 20,000 by 2008. Not really what I wanted to hear. She said they were construction bike trails in the new developments.. I don't think she understood the distances we ride. She also wanted to get a photo of the group to put on the website but didn't have a camera. Guess they'll be touting cycling as a selling point as they build the area up to where you can't cycle it anymore :)
Anyway, back to the ride. Every was keeping a great pace today. Mike D, Karen and I broke away from the others early on and made a stop in Micro. We were averaging 18-19 out to Micro and I didn't really think we'd see the other group until the rest stop in Pine Level but they rode into Micro not more than 5 minutes behind us. They had been sandbagging with the "We only ride at about 12 MPH." I guess Mike D had some kind of incident leaving the convenient store. He, Karen and I started out and I looked back and saw him coming out of the parking lot, Karen and I rode a little ways up Main Street and looked back and Mike was no where to be seen. One of the other guys said he needed to make a mechanical adjustment so Karen and I assumed Mike had stopped to help out. Finally after a few minutes the group came along and we found out Mike had had a small crash. A Bandaid and brake adjustment and we were on our way again.
Rolled into Pine Level and stopped at the usual convenient store. I arrived a couple of minutes ahead of everyone else and was taking off my helmet, etc to use the bathroom when an old codger got out of his car and was talking to his friend saying "Those damn bikers wouldnt get out of the way. I thought I was going to have to run one over." He got an earful from me regarding the North Carolina state law and how it relates to cycling on the road which led to a few not so pleasant exchanges between he and I. Then we got the stink eye from everyone else.. at least it seemed that way.
Left Pine Level with the intent of not getting run over by any old men and the wind had REALLY picked up. We were averaging right at 18MPH up to that point and the wind really dropped us back. Karen was strong today, pulling along at 19-20 MPH for extended distances. That new fit seemed to have done wonders for her. I took the front on the road I hate on Zack Attack, SR 2366, which always seems to have brutal, brutal winds. It wasn't too bad today, thankfully but it was rough in other parts. Once we got on Pittman, Karen fell back and little and Mike D and I rode on. He and I rode into Shoeheel and we stopped at the "convenient store" and waited for everyone to regroup. The old dude that pumps has there came out and talked to us for a bit. From there, we headed out and rode together until Old Dam Rd (Which is still unmarked) as I didnt want anyone to miss that turn like we did when we road that ride that replaced the Hope Springs Eternal route.. we ended up doing an extra 12 miles or so since we missed that turn.
Once on Old Dam, Mike D and I left the rest of the group and rode in together. Jordan Narron was the usual fun climb. I ended up with a moving time of 2:30:54 and a speed of 17.1. My average heart rate for the ride was at about 73% so it was a pretty good workout. I hit 97% coming up Jordan Narron.
Here's a link to the ride data if anyone is interested.
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/email/accept.mb?senderPk.pkValue=6233&unitSystemPkValue=2&episodePk.pkValue=1622586&backgroundDatasourcePk.pkValue=11
Hopefully we have a few more days like that over the winter!