Fellow DOGS:
Special thanks to Mark and Cheryl for a wonderful day of tandeming.
Team Cook/Prudhomme turned last year's ride around into a fast, but hilly, tour of Somerset and Morris County roads. The weather was better than forecasted. The sun was shining, the sky was a beautiful light blue, and it was becoming warmer by the time the ride began. In fact, Team Wells had first put on a too heavy set of cycling clothes only to change into something lighter before leaving home (a good move). We all gathered at the Cook/Prudhomme home, signed in, talked and talked, and talked... There were 15.5 teams present (Teams: Borowsky/Peck [a possible "new" DOGS team], Cate, Boyd/Allison, Adam [new to the DOGS], Bird, Rutch/Seidler, Kimmel, Isherwood, Cook/Prudhomme, Dave Snope [Susan was entertaining relatives today, and unable to join us], Wells, Kristol/Brandriss, Willard/Hamanaka, Bergstrom, LeGrand/Chan, and Dodson/Emerson). We began with a group photo taken by Dave Kristol, our Webmaster, and then were off to explore the roads at 10:52 AM. (Linda checked her watch).
Since this was the reverse of last year's ride, we headed towards Meyersville, which brought us to the first steep grade barely two miles into the ride. Oh, did those not-yet-warmed-muscles complain! But, we got over the top and headed down into Meyersville--a nice downhill road, and then out through the Great Swamp. Team Wells (a.k.a., Team Half-Fast) took an early lead out from the pelethon that lasted until just before we started climbing into New Vernon. We managed to hold our own with the second group of climbers. It was pretty stiff but we held up well in our 38-34 gear, maintaining contact with the group as we headed towards Lindsley Road. We then headed back to Somerset County through Basking Ridge and into Bernardsville. The riders were going fast and furious. On Lindsley Road, we managed to catch up with the front group and took a short lead, again, until we got back into Basking Ridge.
We all managed to get safely through Bernardsville and started powering out Route 202 South towards Far Hills. We (Linda and George) were held up at a light in the center of Bernardsville with Walt and Claire. We managed to hold their wheel pretty well, hitting speeds around 25 mph until we hit the climbs going towards Far Hills. We drifted back, farther and farther with each climb, until Walt and Claire were out of sight. Fortunately, these roads were familiar to George, especially since he lived in the area most of his life until he and Linda were married, almost 29 years ago. This was also the same territory of the 1997 ETR (when the DOGS was born--thanks Joe!). The beauty was that we were climbing better than ever and never left the middle ring for the entire ride. (Has a lot to do with weight loss, doing a lot of tandem riding and Bowflexing and goin from In Phase to Out-of-Phase riding. Linda has become much stronger). The rest and regroup stop was at the USGA Golf Museum where all the teams showed up, rested, talked, and talked, and talked... At this point, the ride was a little more than half complete.
The second half was pretty fast, mostly rolling hills. Of course, they don't call this area "The Somerset Hills" for nothing! There wasn't much territory that was anywhere near flat. It was either a good downhill run, or an uphill grind. The pelethon was fractured into small groups, pretty fast. Team Wells kept trying to bridge up to the leaders but each climb put us just out of reach of catching anyone. We would see them just in the distance, only to have them disappear over another hill. It wasn't frustrating, only keeping our enthusiasm working with the hope of catching up--always a challenge. We finally did catch the second group, a mere block from the end point. Our average speed for the 29.1 mile ride was 14.92 mph.
As we turned into the church parking lot, we caught the wonderful smells of Mark cooking on the grill. Sweaty and a bit tired, we also found ourselves feeling hungry. The rest of the afternoon was spent talking with our fellow DOGS on all sorts of topics--swapping Tandem Tales and discussing the intricacies of various components.
Claire provided a deliciously gooey, completely chocolate cake for everyone. (Yum!) Mark presented a rose to every stoker in keeping with the name of this ride. As the afternoon went by, members drifted away back to their non-tandeming lives. (We know everyone has a lot on their plate nowadays.) George and Linda said there goodbyes at 6:08 PM and returned home to Molly and Muggles (their almost four year old Bluepoint Siamese Littermate Kittens), leaving Larry and Brenda and Al and Debbie (who had been unable to join us for the ride), talking with our host and hostess for this day.
A basic rule of thumb is that in any voluntary organization a 10% turnout is a success. We had 23% of the membership present! So this was a rousing success. It was also the birthdays of Walt Willard and Jack Borowsky (who is our "almost" newest DOGS).
Hope to see you all at the Farmlands Tour next Saturday, 1 May. (Check out the Events Calendar on our Website.) There is already a DOGS contingent planning on being there. We're off to a great season of tandeming.
Thank you, all of you, for making the DOGS the wonderful club that it is. We are honored to be your leaders.
Linda & George Wells
Leaders - Doubles Of the Garden State (DOGS)
Important Post Script: For those who have contemplated hosting a ride, don't be awed by the post ride festivities. Because tandeming is the social form of bicycling, we tend to "hang around" following any ride. However, each ride leader has their own sense of hospitality - and it isn't competitive. This can be anything from Mark & Cheryl's post ride of 24 April, or a covered dish sharing table, to a "Dutch Treat" invasion of the local pizza parlor. What matters is that we all get together and have fun as well as arrive back safely. So, if you have thought about hosting a ride, we would be happy to participate.