You’ve got a hell of a way of flagging somebody down!

How ’bout that. Two group rides in one day. Not too bad if I do say so myself.

No scheduled group rides on Saturday left my Sunday free. Hadn’t gone with Lifetime in a while so figured I hit up their B group ride. Then saw that GVC would be doing a ride starting a little later than usual so I hatched a plan to do both. I would ride with Lifetime expecting to finish around 9:30 and then chase down GVC.

I think colder early morning temps kept many of the Lifetimers at home wrapped in their blankets in bed. Both groups were smaller than usual, but B was particularly small with only five riders total. Pace felt a little slower than a typical B group ride, but I felt we’d finish up early enough for me to make a run to catch the GVC gang. That kinda evaporated when one of the guys, Tow, took a spill due to a flat front along Carnegie just before Cozy Hill in front of the LDS Church. I hung out with him until Mindy rolled up and the two of them took off. Started getting myself ready to roll out when the A group, who’d done a longer route, passed me by heading back to the gym.

Took off down Carnegie and quickly made a left onto Cozy Hill to catch Amargosa Trail. I’d use it to get to the pedestrian bridge to take me over St. Rose. Once on the southbound side of the St. Rose Parkway trail I kept with it until Eastern where I reentered the roadway. Then it was time to put my head down and cruise. Again, was feeling really good all things considered. The tail wind along LVB was a very welcome addition. My goal was to catch the GVC crowd at the Chevron in Jean. Unfortunately, I came up just short and picked them up just north of Jean.

Pulling a quick u-turn, I jumped onto the tail of the pack and quickly realized how much of tail wind I really had. Having put forth so much effort to come south I was more than happy to grab a wheel and relax some to head back.

That attitude would last for much of the stretch along LVB until one of the group dropped his chain. I stopped with him and we started rolling and rotating to bridge back up to the group. Think we did a pretty good job and did eventually catch everyone. At that point I was pretty much recharged and started taking turns up off the front. Eventually we got broke up into two groups and I continued to help rotating with the second group. Feel we made pretty decent time considering the head wind.

Rolled to a stop at the M Casino to regroup and we realized we’d dropped John. After a few minutes of waiting he eventually rolled up. Giving him a once over saw some dirt and dust along his leg and realized he’d taken a spill. With some prodding he eventually admitted to taking a spill after getting buzzed by a car and having to dart across the rumble strips. Thankfully he was ok.

I knew I didn’t want to ride all the back to Pebble Marketplace and figured M would be about as far as I would go. Thankfully Joy was also onboard with that idea, but she’d mentioned something about wanting coffee! Never missing an excuse for coffee the two of us rode over to the Starbucks at Bicentennial and Anthem Highlands for a rest and recharge.

After hanging out for about half an hour it was time to head home. Saying our goodbyes, we split with Joy continuing west on Bicentennial Parkway while I turned left/south onto Anthem Highlands. Seems the theme of this ride was feeling really good and again that was the case as I started the climb home. Legs were feeling awesome especially for being nearly 80 miles in. Made quick work of the last miles home before getting cleaned up to go take care of the day’s errands.

Overall it was a great day for a ride. Having a nice group is always good, but enjoying two groups in one day is twice as nice.

Give your activities the names they deserve. – by Bandok.com
Mostly sunny-Partly sunny, 36°F-62°F, Feels like 36°F-62°F, Humidity 30%-11%, Wind NW 2mph-NNE 4mph – by Klimat.app
— myWindsock Report —
Weather Impact: 0.2%
Headwind: 57% @ 4.1-10.9mph
Longest Headwind: 01h 2m 21s
Air Speed: 18.2mph
Temp: 36.7-57.9°F
Precip: 0% @ 0 Inch/hr
— END —