3/18/12 Ride Recap - Just Under 60 Miles On A Gorgeous Day

The near perfect weather for biking brought out the largest number of riders that our group has had to date. 14 of us started off from Panera Bread, and we were joined enroute by Herb and Rob. The group included:

Alvin Spector

Martin Hu

Juliane Meurice

Ben Schapiro

Steve Courtright

Cons Gattuso

Jeff Kahle

Nancy Berte

George Usleber

Bob Werner

Dave Reesh

Gary Pickens

Felix Angelov

Randy Pickard

Herb Schwartz

Rob Schulman

At the beginning of the ride, it seems there may have been a few nasty words shouted at Martin and me. We both had fresh legs, while the majority of the group had weary legs from a tough session at Vision Quest on Saturday. However, with the wind at our backs, Martin and I thought that a brisk early pace would be fun for the group, and we both have thick skins.

Once we got to Skokie Valley Bikeway, the pace jumped up to 24 mph, with a few pulls at 25.5. At the end of the "bunny trail" Felix convinced the group to do a loop around Ascension Cemetery which led to the ride's total miles ending up at just under 60 miles.

 The ride featured a number of sprints, but as Martin is getting accustomed to his fixie and the spots where he is most likely to be attacked, it has become tough to beat him to the top of a hill. Despite valiant efforts by Steve and Felix, no one was able to catch Martin on any of the sprints.

It was a perfect day to sit out on the patio at Panera Bread for our mid ride break. The patio was  basically taken over by bikes groups.

On the way back home, we passed the EBC 9:00 am group. It seems remarkable how often our two groups encounter each other on rides.

It is interesting to note how much faster our group has become over the past year. On the way back south on the Skokie Valley Bikeway, we rode into the wind at a 22 mph pace. The mild weather has allowed for more outdoor miles this year and the group's members have obviously put in a lot of time on trainers over the winter. On a comparable ride during the St. Patrick Day weekend last year, our average pace including stop was a fraction over 16 mph. On today's ride, our average pace including stops was over 19 mph. I'm sure we were wearing more layers of clothing last year, but hard training over the winter probably accounts for more of the increase in speed than better weather.