Wednesday, August 23

Wednesday Ride, Apex

We had a fun little ride tonight at Apex with Scott, Dan, Erik, Bill, Craig and me in attendence. At first we were missing a couple regulars but then we found Bill and Erik arrived just after we left the parking lot and caught us before too long. We started up Apex but it was crowded so we headed up Pick and Sledge instead. Here is Erik catching us partway up Pick.
We connected Pick and Sledge up to Grubsteak except for Dan who lost his brakes(!) and headed down a shorter connection to make sure he could go slow. Lots of fun descending through the trees on Grubsteak.
Scott caught me first and told me Erik lost rear shock pressure so he was airing it up. Craig, Bill and Erik weren't far behind. Here they are catching up. Whee!
After Grubsteak we worked our way back down Sluice Box and had a lot of fun. Erik stopped quick for a switchback and Craig, Scott and I all piled up behind him but amazingly no one touched or went down. Hmmm maybe I should try looking ahead. The cloud of emergency brake dust was entertaining though. Our alternate routes on the trail worked out well and for the most part we didn't have to pass too many people. Scott pinched on our way down but we fixed that quickly too and were back at the Apex trail intersection before long. Here is Craig blowing by me down Apex.
Bill and I played follow the leader teh rest of they way down. It was fun trying to blindly follow his line. In fact I did that okay and only crashed when leading. Luckily it was just a bit of bent brake lever and contortionism trying to get unclipped while on the ground. The Monocog and I survived another wreck mostly unscathed.
We got back to the parking lot just before dark which is coming earlier now, right around 8pm. Dan was waiting and had made it down safely. Scott, Erik, Bill and I messed around with a few sprint sessions in the wide open parking lot and then all headed over to Woody's for salad and pizza. Yum. It has been fun riding the singlespeed again all week. The 2:1 gearing is taking some getting used to. It was definitely a grunt today on the loose uphills. I think I'll get stronger over time though and since my next race is on a geared bike I'll probably leave it alone for a while. Okay time for bed. More fun planned soon so I better get some sleep.

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