Another wet mid ride

But pretty nice on both ends! Today's plan was to re-ride last week's Snoozeville Populaire. Since it wasn't the official ride we referred to it as our Snooseville ride since that's where it goes through. ;-)

Dave, Mark, Steve, Luis, and I showed up for the ride billed as a "training ride" for the social bike club I belong to.
Being an official Oregon Randonneur I find a certain pressure to ride to the ride, so I succumbed and rode to and from the ride, adding 21 miles to the Snoozeville Populaire's 62 miles.

There was a significant head wind for about the first 25 miles but it was dry. Prior to beginning today Steve (whom I had not ridden with before) said he was accustomed to riding in pacelines and was wondering if we did that. I figured any offer to help carry the load was good. I told him that we all had the skills to paceline safely.

We started off into the brisk wind (maybe 15 mph?) I was leading and hammering pretty hard. I was holding 18 mph and kept checking my mirror to see if anyone else was ready to lead or were dropping off the back. Nobody dropped but nobody offered to lead either! After a few miles we made the turn onto Sewell Rd and we still had to contend with the wind a bit since it was out of the NW.

We stopped at the now vacant Mountaindale Store for a rest and re-fueling from our stocks. We started up that almost imperceptible hill that is Mountaindale Rd. Luis and I traded pulling for several miles and put some distance on the rest of the guys.
Luis admitted to attending a very sumptuous potluck until late last night, that coupled with his missing last week's ride put him at a disadvantage. Before too long he had dropped back to join the others on our way to the Snooseville turnaround where we regrouped and again re-fueled.

(L to R, Dave, Luis, Steve, and Mark)

The run back down Moutaindale Rd, always a fun descent, was assisted by a tailwind today. We flew. Most of the way the speedo read 23-24 mph with most of us taking turns in the lead. Once back to the Mountaindale Store we again turned into the wind and worked our tails off until the end of Cedar Canyon Rd west of Banks. As we hit a few rollers west of Banks Mark showed his strength as he pedaled right away from the rest of us up those hills....... but Dave gave chase and eventually caught up to him! I was happy to sit back and watch them as I had expended a pretty good amount of energy pulling into the wind earlier. (oh, and the 125 miles the day before!)

Once we turned left on Hwy 6 we had the wind mostly at our backs for the rest of the ride. It had begun raining as we pedaled out of Banks, and about now it started raining pretty hard. It didn't last very long and had stopped by the time we rode into the edges of Forest Grove and took advantage of a picnic table in the new park. (Shhh...not yet open...don't tell!)



We avoided a section of the official route by taking the high traffic, but wide shouldered Hwy 8 to Hillsboro, rather than the Verboort Round-a-bouts and that ugly left turn onto Long Rd followed by the zero shoulder poor sightlined Susbauer Rd option. Once in Hillsboro we got on Main Street then took a left on Connell. We soon found ourselves back on that always smooth and tailwind (usually both directions it seems!) Evergreen Rd.

I had one motorist issue near the airport. A signal changed to red in front of us. I checked my mirror and noticed traffic approaching from the rear. As I teach in my bike safety class I pulled a few feet into the lane to ensure I was not right hooked by a turning vehicle. I was in full compliance of ORS 814.420(c). My intent was as the light turned green I would immediately move to the right and re-enter the bicycle lane. As the light was still red, a lifted 4x4 4 door Ford pickup pulled up behind me and honked a few times, followed by the driver sticking his head out the window and telling me to get out of his lane and that I belonged in the bike lane a few feet over. (all interspersed with expletives of course). I noted his license plate number and given my recent experience figured it best if I not engage him. The light turned green, I moved over, and he roared past using up his carbon credits for the foreseeable future. For future reference, I noted that he turned left onto Sewell Rd. (not that many homes there!) I had the plate number in my head for the next 10 minutes as we finished up the ride, then promptly forgot it before I could write it down. :-( His behavior may have qualified him for a violation of ORS 163.190 (menacing) but my point was not to have him cited but to have a civilized discussion on why I was in that lane. One just has to remember Brett Jarolimek and Tracey Sparling to know why it's not safe to be to the right of a potentially right turning vehicle.

The ride ended without further incident. Just like yesterday's ride both ends of the ride were pretty good but the middle was a bit wet. We managed to hold an average in the mid 16mph range for the ride. It was a good ride!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles
Today............83...............0.................83
Jan total.......501.....+.........30.......=.......531
Feb total.......614.....+.........0........=.......614
March total.....489.....+.........0........=.......489
Year to date...1605.....+.........30.......=......1635
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++