Saturday - We basically got rained out on Saturday. Given the threatening weather and early start time, I was the only rider to show up at 5:55 am at Panera Bread. I rode up to Highland Park to join George Ammerman's ride. I stayed dry on the ride up to Highland Park, but as I got farther north, the sky got ever darker with lots of lighting just a few miles in front of me. The skies opened up and started pouring just as I pulled up to Once Upon A Bagel. George, his friend Mike, and I drank coffee for 45 minutes waiting for the skies to clear. They didn't. The skies were darker to the north, so at 7:15 am, we decided to throw in the towel on the idea of riding to Kenosha and rode back to Evanston,
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The planned 8:00 am ride was moved back to 10:00 am due to the weather. A group of us met at Panera Bread for this ride. However, just as we were about to start, more bad weather rolled in. Thus, there was another round of coffee drinking. After a couple of cups of coffee, with the roads in Wilmette starting to puddle up, we gave up on this ride. However, we probably gave up a bit to early. George and Mike had a good ride up to Fort Sheridan, and Felix (who got a ride home in Hugo's car) and I discovered that once we got back to Skokie and Glenview that the roads in our home towns were dry.
Sunday - The 52 mile Sunday ride had the largest number of cyclists to date for a 20+ MPH group ride. We had 14 riders in the group, and picked up a couple more at our stop at Panera Bread for a total of 16 of us on the way home.
On the trek north to Libertyville, Felix was successful in keeping the group together in a reasonably tight paceline traveling at a steady 22 mph. Aside from a couple of planned sprints, we probably held together about as well as on any previous ride. And even on a 28 mph sprint Martin led down Waukegan Road, we held together surprisingly well.
The ride south was just the opposite in terms of sticking together as a group. We were holding together fairly well on Green Bay Road until a couple of riders from the Pony Shop that we had passed decided to speed up and pass our group. Well, this provocation undid the discipline of the the group. Of course these two riders had to be chased down. The ride from Glencoe to Wilmette basically turned into an all our sprint, with the group getting widely spread out. But importantly, Mike and Martin succeeded in chasing down the Pony Shop riders, and a bunch of us were also on the verge of doing so until they veered east on Scott Street.
The numerous long sprints on this ride ended up leading to the average computer speed of the ride (including stops) being 20.15 mph. Thus, despite the disciplined pace going north, it still ended up being as fast a ride as we have taken all year.
The group included:
Cons
David K.
Felix
Gary
George
Heidi
Herb
Hugo
Joe
Martin
Mike
Randy P.
Rich
Tom
Monday - We met up with a large group from the EBC at Panera for their Butter Burger Century. However, our group was either wimpier or wiser than the main EBC group. Given the 92 degree heat and the winds that were blowing out of the south at speeds that were predicted to top 20 mph, we decided to shorten up the ride. Eventually, we determined upon Viking Park in Gurnee as a destination. It ended up being about a 62 mile ride. As we headed home riding into the wind and with the day started to really heat up, I don't think there was anyone in our group that regretted our decision to "go short". We proved ourselves to not be total wimps by coming home riding against the wind at a pace that according to my bike computer was almost as fast as our pace going north with the wind.
Our group included:
Cons
Felix
Herb
Randy P
Also Heidi and Dave R, rode with us for an extended portion of the ride, but joined the main EBC group for the Butter Burger ride.
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