We had a really pleasant ride out to the Cuba Road rollers and Barrington Hills on a gorgeous fall day. Round trip the ride was about 82 miles. Bob, Charles, Felix, Heidi, Phil, Randy, Rich, and I composed our group. We found a pace at 20-21 mph that worked for everyone in the group, with numerous sprints that gave the faster members of the group a chance to air it out. The combination of an appropriate pace, the Cuba Road rollers and some hard sprints made it into a ride that offered challenges for all of us without anyone being under too much stress.
At one point during the ride, I tried to replicate one of Martin's surges going up an overpass, but my effort was widely disparaged because my cadence was way too high to bear any resemblance to Martin.
Randy was a first time rider with our group. His bike was ride-able despite his frightening encounter with a hit and run car driver last week. However, as we went along he discovered his bike needed an adjustment. We were pleasantly surprise to discover that Wheels of Northbrook was open at 7:45 am on a Saturday to make a quick repair. Go figure, a bike shop that is actually open when bikers are starting their rides.
The only note of dissent on the trip came as we passed the Deerfield Bakery on the way home. We had stopped for lunch at Einstein's in Barrington, and while the food was fine, and they had tables out front that allowed us to enjoy the nice day, it was sort of a mundane lunch. Although I am glad we made it home in time to get some afternoon errands in, it was a bit of a challenge to pass up all the delicious sweets at the Deerfield bakery.
The rigors of the Cuba Road rollers obviously did not deplete all the energy of Heidi, Charles, and Phil, as they added an extra 20 miles to the route by making a detour north to the Botanic Gardens and thus getting in a 100 mile ride.
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