Madison Area Bicycle Club

We had an awesome turnout for the Monday Night Ride!  Attendees included ride leaders, John Crawley and Kristie Prickett, Stacy Crawley, Bob Canida, Ken Critchlow, Andy Williams, Reed Bagley (who joined the club just this week!), Tom Pritchard, <<pause, inhale>> Ray Graybill, Paul Lapham, Teri Lutz, Marty Leiske, Dave Fleming and your feckless correspondent.

 

Much of the crowd was already there when I arrived, and others came streaming in from all directions as I got ready, including Andy Williams, fighting his way through the southerly wind on Highway 62.  We would all get a taste of this soon enough.  Our first "mechanical" for the ride became apparent as soon as I pulled my front wheel out of the trunk.  It had gone in with 100psig in the tire, but came out...flat :(  I pulled out a spare tube and Tom Pritchard wanted to know how many patches were on it.  I offered to let him count, but neither of us had enough time.  With the aid of Dave Fleming's floor pump (thanks again, Dave!) I quickly had my wheel back in business again and wasn't even late for the ride start.  Just for the record, Tom, that flat tube had five patches.  Now six!

 

There were so many of us that ride selfie preparations were a bit complicated, but Kristie Prickett managed grandly in spite of all the advice we gave her.  The ride group split, rejoined, split and rejoined as the ride progressed.  We were divided into "A" "B" "C" and "Fun" groups, comprising in all, one group!

 

We regrouped at the foot of Manville Hill in Manville for the climb up Wolf Run.  There's one really frisky chaser-dog on this climb and we were concerned about it and also discussing the two three-legged dogs on this road.  (Chaser-dog ought to watch and learn on that one!).  Some wondered if two three legged dogs are equivalent to one six legged dog and Dave Fleming pointed out that since we were close to China that Siamese twin dogs might be a possibility.  As it turned out, the dogs were well enough intimidated by our numbers--they are pack animals, after all--that we did not have any troubles.  At least with dogs.

 

Marty Leiske learned on the lower reaches of Wolf Run that his new chain and older small chainring were not getting along, causing his chain to jump teeth under load, making climbing a tricky business at first and soon, no business at all :(  He elected to call the team car, which in this case was Dave Fleming to the rescue (again...thank you Dave!!) after we returned to KDH.  Meanwhile, the rest of us were up at Ryker's Ridge School talking about food.  But Andy Williams was actually doing something about it, by riding home to dinner, as he lives nearby and rode to the start through all that wind.  The rest of us wended our way back to KDH, with one final push straight into that bad old south wind.

 

We finished up with 18.7 miles by my accounting; Ken Critchlow and the Crawleys a few miles more from home, including some more tough headwind to return to Hillcrest Drive.

 

A bunch of us decamped to the Red Pepperoni for dinner, including Reed Bagley, Kristie Prickett, Ken & Joy Critchlow, Marty Leiske, Paul Lapham, Teri Lutz, Bob & Charlotte Canida and myself.  We had an enjoyable time discussing, among other things, bikes, quilting, firearms, deer hunting, kayaks and what one may find at the Meat Department in Krogers.

 

It was a great ride and fun evening.

Come ride with us...

 

Jon