5 of us showed up for the ride today, Mark H, Mark K, Kris, Dave, and I. The wind was very noticable as we headed towards Mountaindale. Once we got to Mountaindale we started up that almost imperceptible incline of Mountaindale Road. After 21 miles of headwind with 9 being uphill we arrived at the bridge over Dairy Creek, the end of pavement and our turnaround point for the out and back section.
Mark, Mark, Dave, and I arrived first.
Followed very closely by Kris.
After a short break we began the fun downhill and tailwind roadway back to Mountaindale. At Mountaindale Kris took her leave of our little group and made her way back to CPR, the rest of us pedaled on, again into the wind.
We arrived at our western terminus, Cedar Canyon Rd and Hwy 6 with a 15.3 mph average. Slow for us, but with the wind we thought it wasn't too bad. I had bonked a bit for the last few miles coming in to this point. The rest of our group had arrived at this intersection several minutes before I did. Once there I had a powerbar, a good drink of Perpetuem, and a shot of Gu. Also adding to the outlook was a promise of a tailwind for the remaining 25+ miles.
We cruised back east on Hwy 6 at 23-25 mph for a strong mile before turning up the short hill of Stafford Road. We continued on a fast pace into Forest Grove and our stop at Maggies Buns. By the time we got there our average was up to 15.9mph. After a few water bottles were refilled we continued on our way. At this point I opt to vary from the official route a bit.
I just don't care for the roundabouts near Verboort and the sometimes dicey left turn off Cornelius-Schefflin onto Long Road. We opted for the high traffic but wide shouldered Tualatin Valley Hwy back to Hillsboro.
We took full advantage of the brisk tailwind and cruised along pretty quickly. We made our way to Connell St then to Jackson School and Evergreen Rd. We arrived back at CPR with a 16.4 average on my speedo, and a 16.5 on Dave's. Maybe call it a 16.489? ;-) No matter, we were all pleased that we had improved on the average that we posted last week, especially when we were relatively slow to Hwy 6.
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...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles
Today............61...............0.................61
Jan total.......501.....+.........30.......=.......531
Feb total.......614.....+.........0........=.......614
March total.....723.....+.........0........=.......723
Year to date...1835.....+.........30.......=......1865
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"We arrived at our western terminus, Cedar Canyon Rd and Hwy 6 with a 15.3 mph average. Slow for us..." For me, that's an OK average. So "slow" for the rest of you except for me. Regardless, you guys helped push me that day so I'm a stronger (and more tired) bicyclist. Thanks for leading us Kevin.
ReplyDeleteI varied a bit from my normal ride day breakfast, I think I was short some of the needed energy! I struggled to keep up with you guys from about mile 20 to mile 35. Luckily my bag has a few tricks in it yet, as well as a few powerbars and shotblocks!
ReplyDeleterather than doing the left turn onto Long, take the next exit off the C-S roundabout (nice new shoulders and pavement), turn right onto Wren, right onto Leisy, left onto Hornecker...
ReplyDeleteThat certainly sounds better than the Long Rd turn. However it was pretty hard to pass up that strong tail wind to Hillsboro on TV Hwy. We kept it 22-25 mph the whole way there!
ReplyDelete