Hills & Mills Ride Report

[by Team Wells; slight editing by Dave Kristol]

It was an interesting week. Like a lot of us, Linda and I were constantly watching The Weather Channel (which we watch almost as much as OLN, during cycling season). All week long, the forecast for Saturday was iffy, at best. On Saturday morning, everything looked like it was going to happen, so we mounted "The Enterprise" atop Linda's 1994 plum Saturn, "Claire," and headed out, shortly after 9 AM. We were barely out of the driveway, when Linda said, "I forgot the directions!" and started giggling--this is the one ride for which we don't need directions to the start point.

Shortly after we arrived at the park, Team Hamanaka/Willard (Claire and Walt) arrived and parked next to us, followed closely by Team Cook/Prudhomme (Mark and Cheryl). Then more and more teams pulled into the parking lot--this was going to be a well attended ride. Those teams included, Teams Brandriss/Kristol (Marji and Dave--our leaders), Rutch/Seidler (Joe and Theresa), Cudworth (Alan and Debbie), Nicolich/Snope (Susan and Dave), Ann Smith on her single while Gisela (her stoker) was home working in the garden and felt that she wasn't up to a 40 mile ride, and our newest DOGS--Team Garber (Larry and Ellen). We finally settled down to 8.5 teams and at 10:18 AM, (Linda checked her watch), we took off!

Teams Cook/Prudhomme, Nicolich/Snope, Hamanaka/Willard and Wells took an early lead, and, as Phil Ligget often says: "The rubber band snapped." Linda and I managed to hold wheels pretty well with the "Big DOGS." That is, until we got into New Vernon and started climbing Lee's Hill Road. This particular hill is an old nemesis of ours, and even with our reduced team weight, we could not keep up with them. We had a first, though. We did Lee's Hill Road, completely in the middle chain ring! (That's what you get for losing the weight of almost two tandems)! By the time we made it over the hill, they were out of sight. I told Linda that we were on our own and had to "ride our own ride," because we would never catch them.

The route, which was very rambling, took us on familiar roads, but with some twists onto roads we had never ridden. It was interesting. The route did wander through New Vernon a lot and we did mess up one cue, but seeing as we know the area, we got back on a familiar course, and still made it to The Raptor Trust (the rest stop), about five minutes after the leaders (or so we were told).

The rest of the teams weren't there yet. We hung around for probably another ten minutes before we decided that we didn't want to get too cooled down because we had the last 15 miles, yet to go. Just then, the rest of the teams started to arrive. With everyone present and accounted for, the same original foursome headed out together, however, it didn't take long for them to drop Team Wells, again. There was a 10-11% grade on Carlton Road (before we turned right on to Long Hill Road). For those who don't know this road, there is a great downhill leading into Basking Ridge where tandems can build up a really good speed.

In the center of Basking Ridge, (South Finley Avenue), Team Wells had a minor encounter with a Boxter who, going slow, suddenly turned right, in front of us, (never turned on his blinker), and into a parking space. I grabbed the brakes but touched the bumper of the driver's car with our front wheel. FDGB [fall down, go boom]! No damage beyond a few scrapes, shaken, but fine and we were off. (We were still somewhere between the leaders and the peloton.) We modified the route to go directly back to Loantaka Park (although it was just as many miles) just without the loops.

Of course, the leaders were already there, packing up their gear and tandems. Our average speed was 15.58 mph. The leaders were well into the 17 mph average range. The rest of the riders came in, one or two teams at a time. Our newest team had managed the course with all the twists and turns. We were all happy to see that they had successfully completely all 40 miles because, before we left Loantaka Park, they weren't sure if they would be able to do it. Congratulations Team Garber (Larry and Ellen)--you did it!

Lots of delicious food and great conversation followed. The last few of us teams who were still hanging around, headed to our cars about 3:00 PM and headed to our respective homes. Well, time to rewind the videotape and see how the first day of the Giro went. (Just discovered that I didn't setup the machine properly and it did not record. -- Bummer.)

Hope to see all of you sometime this season on a club ride. The next one is being led by Team Troike (Ed and Trish) on Memorial Day from their home in New Brunswick to the Somerville Memorial Day Bicycle Races. If you'd like to join us for the day, please contact Ed and Trish.

L&G Wells (a.k.a., Team Lantern Rouge)
Doubles Of the Garden State