Riding with the Big Dogs!

I had billed today's ride to my social bike group as Riding with the Big Dogs. There were going to be long hills, fast descents, long miles, and all ridden at race pace by very accomplished riders. I knew I was going to be struggling to keep up. I just haven't been riding hard enough or long enough this year. Lack of a biking goal will do that to a person!

We were to begin in Hood River, but the dry roads at 5AM gave way to wet roads and quite heavy rain by 6AM. It was still raining hard at 10AM, our scheduled starting time. What was to be a group of 17 ended up being a group of 7. The rest opted to wait for a drier day or go home and ride rollers. The hardy 7 decided to drive 20 miles east to The Dalles. The Dalles gets only about half the annual rainfall of Hood River.

It was a good call. We shoved off with wet roads but no falling rain at 11:30AM. The road dried a bit as we pedaled onward...and upward! Our instigator, Dave, knew the area well and took us on loops of a stage race that is held in the area.
We saw quite a few folks out for training rides today. Sorrella Forte women were out in force. Of course, we had our own women racers. Here is Cristina and Erin, members of Hammer Velo. They were a hammerin' away today!

As expected, the group hammered up these hills at a pace that was challenging to me. Compounding my lack of fitness was a light breakfast that was not enough to cover the energy expended. I had an Ensure about 20 miles into the ride and a couple of packets of honey shortly thereafter. It got me going again, but by that point the damage was done.

My weekend riding partner had bailed on the ride at about mile 22 because of a sore back and a few other issues. Despite my saying I knew the area well enough to not get lost and for the group not to keep waiting for me, they did anyway. I decided to quit holding the group back and decided to join my weekend bike buddy back in The Dalles. Our dry weather was coming to an end, it started raining lightly as I made my way down the road towards town on a route I had ridden many times on The Cherry Ride and about a half dozen rides each year in the area.

I had told my social bike group that if anyone wanted to ride today they should expect to ride with the Big Dogs or be left whimpering along the side of a desolate rural road sitting in a puddle of......
I guess that puppy on the side of the road would be me today. :-O

Here Cristina bids farewell, but obviously not toward me, I was never in front of her! ....in fact you can see me in the distance in my yellow raincoat.(our ride leader today, David M, snapped the photo)


Despite the shorter than planned route, it was a good workout.



I found my riding partner in the coffee shop near where we had started our ride. We enjoyed the relative warmth of the shop, along with some snacks and drinks. In about 45 minutes the rest of the group pedaled in. With the rain coming in, and the day that never quite warmed up, they had shortened their intended route too. They did however get about 10 more miles than I did.

I'll have to ride this route a bit more often.

..........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today........29..............0.............0..........0......... 29
Jan.........474..............0............21..........7.........502
Feb.........530..............0.............0..........0.........530
March.......298..............0.............0..........0.........298
YTD.......1312...............0............21..........7........1340