Well, the story of this week's (today's) ride really began a week before the ride. Hurricane Lili (not "our" Lily), was roiling up in the Caribbean, slamming into Cuba, and threatening already waterlogged New Orleans. The long range predictions on "The Weather Channel" showed Saturday to be a washout in the Northeast, with the remnants of Lili dumping much needed rain on New Jersey and our neighbors.
During the week, Team Wells maintained their riding schedule, alternating each day with their 12 and 22-mile loops. Sunday was a day off of riding our tandem. Instead, the afternoon was spent in Newark at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), enjoying the first program of the season of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (NJSO). Monday's ride was a light one, recovering from the prior Saturday ride of 54-miles from the home of Don Engleke and his wife/stoker, Connie Mertens who live in Bradley Beach to Sandy Hook Lighthouse and return--an excellent ride, that left our legs a bit toasted from slogging into strong headwinds for the first-half of the ride. Their post-ride-picnic made it a great day.
Our Thursday, 3 October, 22-mile loop had our legs feeling a bit tired, with neither of us able to "answer" the occasional "pedal up" request from the other as we followed that loop. Friday was a day off due to rain and drizzle with heavy fog and mist all day long and Saturday wasn't looking good at all. The thought of another "indoor" session, though effective but not exciting, was beginning to feel pretty certain.
Early Friday evening, we called Team Hanamaka/Willard, (Claire and Walt), leaders of Saturday's ride, who were a bit more up-beat. We ended our conversation with the hope that all would go well, but Team Wells went to bed with doubts, fog and misting rain and, oh, yes, my (George's ) batch of "brownies" were a bit over baked and a little dry--nothing was looking good at all. In the early hours, when my (George) body always gets me up, (the blessing/curse of being a true "very early morning person"), I opened the front door, and to my pleasant surprise, found that the mist and fog had dissipated, but the temperature was still in the low 70's and very humid. Rideable, but the tandem was going to get dirty and so were our socks!
We racked the tandem and set out for White Township (the hills of Warren County). Fortunately, Claire and Walt have changed their routes this year and that eliminated two of the nastiest hills in there area (the first is their driveway, the next is the left at the end of their road). With all expected teams in attendance, we headed out at 9:51 AM. Claire had been saying that this ride was not as challenging as the September ride that Teams Isherwood and Nicolich/Snope had in Morris County. Yes, there would be climbs, and lots of them, but nothing really steep nor really long. She was right!
At the onset of the ride, Team Wells legs still felt a bit less than fully ready. The climbs started early and fast. Up and down, then up, again. I kept calling out to Linda that we had a "grade up" and we attacked almost every grade. Slowly, our legs loosened up and regained our rhythm. To be sure, the other teams always pulled ahead on climbs, and we came close to connecting on the downhill sections, only to be left behind on the next climb (nothing abnormal for us--but you all know that about us already; we aren't called "Team Lanterne Rouge" for nothing!) Occasionally, we used our "Alpine/Granny" on some grades that we could have done in the middle ring, but discretion seemed better than roasting our regained legs in this part of Warren/Sussex County.
Thankfully, the leaders stopped occasionally, allowing us to "catch-up" and then drift off as the climbs resumed. The scenery was terrific, with commentary from all the participants on the fact that Claire and Walt always hold great scenic rides (albeit difficult and challenging). We finally stopped for delicious doughnuts 14 miles into the ride (20 more to go). What a nice break, (with special thanks to our hosts for providing the snacks). Refreshed by doughnuts and a rest stop we headed out, again. I joked with Walt saying that "I can hope that it's all downhill from here"--no such luck. There were both ups and downs ahead. The ride began with temperatures in the 70s and humid. Fortunately, the front pushed through with dryer air and cooler temperatures, but nothing uncomfortable.
Shortly there was a downhill, a really good one. I shifted our tandem into the 50-tooth ring and rapidly worked up to the 12-tooth cog. We were screaming down the hills with only Team Isherwood ahead of us. The downhill was bottoming out and heading up. A couple of strong pushes on the pedals were answered by Linda. We had the legs to challenge this grade--in our big ring no less! I saw Brenda look back to see how much distance they had put on the field. I wonder if she was a bit surprised to find "Team Lanterne Rouge" just behind their wheel and starting to pass? Team Isherwood came out of the saddle just as we pulled past--the only problem was that we both blew by the turn on the cue sheet for Cook Road. So, we had to slow down, turn around and catch up with the others who had made the turn correctly. We had peaked out at 44 mph on that uphill sprint, and we paid for it later.
The rest of the ride was a series of ups and down's that finally led back to the White Township Recreation area. Beautiful scenery, and an a really great ride. Claire and Walt had arranged for a great post ride that began with cheese doodles, pretzels and M&M's and then a meal of Lasagna and pasta, with salad and several deserts. (Anybody getting hungry?) What a way to end the day!
Due to the weather we've been having, this has been a great season for DOGS rides. We have had 10% or more of the membership at almost every ride as well as having added more members as the season has been progressing. Of course, just because the weather will turn cooler, and the daylight hours shorter, there is still a lot of potential riding out there for the balance of this year. (Hint! Hint!) See you on the roads and/or at the Winter Solstice Party. We will let you all know what the date of it will be.