A Classic

A Kitsap Color Classic that is!

This event is billed as the season finale for Cascade Bicycle Club.  Those of us who ride year round chuckle at the concept of an "off season", but it was fun to get out and pedal with a lot of other cyclists.

The weather was superb. I have not been riding many miles the last couple of months, and certainly not riding them hard, but I was pleased today.  The Kitsap Color Classic route has just enough hills to make it interesting, and enough hills to weed out the weaker cyclists.  Today I pedaled well.  I put hundreds of riders behind me as I pedaled strongly along.  I was climbing 3% grades at 20 mph plus!  Woo Hoo!

Update:

I began my journey in Edmonds, WA where I boarded the ferry to Kitsap. It is always amazing to see an auto ferry taken over by bicycles.  Sort of a warm fuzzy feeling all over. ;-)

Kitsap Color Classic is three separate loops all intersecting at a common support stop. The Poulsbo Loop (35 miles) has an intermediate rest stop as well, right on the water in Poulsbo. There is also the Hansville Loop, and the Indianola Loop.

I started out riding the Poulsbo Loop by following the blue Dan Henry pavement markings. My plan was to ride hard since my more socially paced friends were going to forgo the first loop, and thus have a sizable head start on me. I was hoping to catch them somewhere along the course.   I started off strongly from the ferry and passed cyclists by the score as we made our way up the hill. It wasn't terribly steep, around 3-4% for most of it, but enough to slow many of the riders down. The traffic signals had grouped the riders together and I was putting one group behind me, putting the next group in my sights and catching them then putting them behind me as well.  I kept repeating as necessary. ;-)

I pedaled into Port Gamble, the site of the best display of Kitsap Color today.  It seems that the late season this year slowed the onset of maximum fall colors.

The beautiful blue sky made up for any lack of fall color.
There was a fall festival in Port Gamble, probably a lot of interesting things to do and see, but I pedaled right through in my quest to catch up with my friends.  I arrived in Poulsbo and stopped for food and refreshments. It was a very scenic location for a support stop and I spent a bit of time just soaking it all in.

I left Poulsbo and resumed pedaling along briskly.  I arrived back at the main support stop and the starting location for all three loops.  After a series of calls and text messages I decided to wait for my friends here. I bided my time visiting with some of the Cascade Bicycle Club staff whom I had met during this year's Ride Around Washington. Shortly my friends pedaled in and after considerable discussion it was decided that we'd all pedal together on a modified Poulsbo loop, which got morphed as we pedaled into a Port Gamble and back route.  We spent considerable time in Port Gamble eating ice cream and just plain visiting.  We also went to a pioneer cemetery, for reasons only fully understood by Eric. ;-)
After yet more discussion.......

we turned around and pedaled back to the starting point.  Some handled the ride today without much trouble, others felt the effects of a somewhat hilly route, and in some cases a hilly ride the day before.  No matter, we all made it back without incident.

The views continued as we rode the ferry back to Edmonds.

When we disembarked the ferry we rode just over a mile back to where my pickup was parked.
Mike, Julie, and I loaded up and made our way back to Seattle. After a good day of hilly riding on less than 4 hours sleep the night before it was a quick dinner and off to bed for this tired boy!

It was a great day, just perfect.
You might want to visit THIS BLOG POST by the freshly svelt Lisa Lawrence to catch her take on this day.

............road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total Today..........54..............0.............0..........0...........54 Jan...........105.............34.............0..........0..........139 Feb...........428............108.............0.........24..........536 March.........809..............0.............0.........22..........831 April........1010..............0.............0..........0.........1010 May..........1000..............0............20..........0.........1020 June.........1500..............0.............0..........0.........1500 July.........1558..............0.............0..........0.........1558 Aug...........531..............0.............0..........0..........531 Sept..........730..............0.............0..........0..........730 YTD..........7657............142............20.........46.........7826