No Levee or Points

 I rode the Cascade Bicycle Club's "Two Points and a Levee" ride today. Yes, the same route I had been painting the turns on the last few weeks.

Today several hundred Cascade Training Series riders took to the road. The crowd was broken down into several smaller groups of 15-25 riders, depending on speed/fitness. I was riding with friends in the "red 1" group.

Red 1

 I was planning on riding the route with them and then going to a RAAM rider Chris Ragsdale event later in the day. The route was 66 miles. We started out of Renton.

CTS 6, Red Roll Out
 

Our group's ride leader did an excellent job of keeping the group together, a daunting job with riders of this caliber.  We climbed a 2 mile long hill at about 5% into Federal Way, followed shortly by a rest stop at a park,

It was a nice day, and the best views were just a few short miles away, but alas, after nearly 3 hours the group had only covered 20 miles. I was out of time and turned around finding my own way back.

I made good time back to my pickup, covering the distance in just over an hour. I loaded my bike, made my way to Sumner where I picked up friend Julie and her bike, then drove to Burien where we took in the Chris Ragsdale event. It was good to see him again and wish him well on RAAM.

He spoke about his preparations, introduced his crew, thanked his sponsors, and showed us a bike movie!

You can hear about some of his plans and preparations in this recent interview with George Thomas.




Today...............40.............0..............0..........0..............40 Jan..................93..............0...............0.........0..............93 Feb................411..............0..............0.........0............411 March.............653.............0..............0.........0............653 April..............696..............0...............0.........0............696 May...............397...............0...............0.........0.............397 Total...........2253.............0...............0..........0.............2253