Sounds like a great ride, Matt. Too bad about that wind. Did you at least get a tailwind on some part of it? Great that there was a good sized field for it. I thought about it, but am still trying to figure out where my knee is; able to do 40 yesterday, but that was with stopping every ten miles for a stretch break.
On Sun, Feb 14, 2010 at 9:24 AM, Matt Critchlow <matt.critch...@gmail.com>wrote: > I just wanted to quickly report on the 80 for Haiti ride yesterday. I > had a fantastic time! It was my first time riding an AdventureCorps > ride, and I was really impressed by how orderly and helpful Chris and > the volunteers were. They got the 150+ of us out and riding in a quick > and efficient manner, and the checkpoints were well laid out and well > stocked with volunteers, bathrooms, water and food. We were also > provided with some great teas from Infusion of Tea in La Jolla which > helped get everyone warmed up at the start. The choco-vanilla Mate was > my favorite. Speaking of which, it was actually a bit warmer than > Chris predicted, which no one was complaining about! That said the > wind was pretty brutal. Being 6'5" I get to feel every wisp of wind as > it is, and as usual many people gravitate behind me(the one man wind > shield) during times like this. I'd like to think that they gravitate > towards me because they want to be friendly and chat, but that might > be a little optimistic! I did meet some nice folks as a result of this > though, and I'm used to it anyway. > > The ride itself was absolutely beautiful. The pictures in my mind put > up on the site didn't really do the ride justice, although pictures > rarely can. It was certainly a tough ride, at least for me, but it was > really enjoyable and I met some really nice people. There was a great > mix of riders there. You could obviously tell the club/competitive > riders who took off at the start like they were trying to catch up to > Lance or something, but there were actually a lot of "regular" riders > out as well just taking their time enjoying the ride. Honestly I was > amazed at the amount of TT bikes used by people and was sitting there > at the start line shaking my head. We were going out on an 80 mile > ride with 6k feet of climbing, and it just seems to me like a TT bike > "might" not be the best option. But to each their own right? And > seriously what do I know, I've never even ridden one :) > > Saw one Heron on the road with a very classic/classy setup, and while > I was waiting in my second group to start I was standing next to a > girl with a very cool old Raleigh Mixte. Chris snapped a pic or two of > it before we took off. > > All in all I had a fantastic time and am already thinking of when I > can get out to Pine Valley and ride again. I'd like to thank this > forum for getting the word out on it, otherwise I wouldn't have heard > of it and been able to attend. I was actually asked by a woman who was > one of my wind shield followers for a while how I'd heard of the ride > since I wasn't in a club or raced. I told her "on the Rivendell bike > forum" and got a strange look. I explained quickly the company/bikes/ > style and continued to get strange looks. Oh well. > > Cheers, > > Matt > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<rbw-owners-bunch%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en. > > -- Cheers, David Redlands, CA "Bicycling is a big part of the future. It has to be. There is something wrong with a society that drives a car to workout in a gym." ~Bill Nye, scientist guy -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
