Play And Pay

Had a good cycling week.

Tuesday evening I joined the Utah Velo Club for their Alpine climbing route. I enjoy riding with those guys. If I hadn't been having so much fun on the mountain bike this year I would have done more rides with them. As the ride neared the end Mike and I went up south Suncrest. It felt good to stretch the legs on a group road ride.

Thursday evening I met Rick, Colin and Cory for Park City ride. We went up Colins and Robs then out Mid Mountain to Red Pine Lodge and back. They set a brisk pace and being stuck in middle ring didn't help. (I put on a new crank last week and didn't get the front derailleur adjusted properly.) It's a long climb but it went by pretty quickly. Strangely, the downhill seemed longer than the climb. It just went on and on, fast and fun - loved it.

Friday morning was the Alpine Loop ride with a special appearance by Rick - his first ride since breaking his hip 6 long weeks ago. Rick was off his usual blistering pace, but he's still plenty fast. We had a pretty good turnout. I brought some fritters to celebrate Rick's return. We got rained on near the top, but it wasn't too cold and actually felt good to me. Going down Mark and I took off first to try and get a jump on dug. It didn't work, dug is just too fast on the descent and takes corners at warp speed. The wet road made it sketchy but no one crashed. Following Mark I would draft until I couldn't stand the water spraying in my face from his rear tire. I lost contact with Mark below Tibble Fork and didn't have the legs or gears to catch him (spun out with a 12 tooth cog). It didn't matter, dug was gone - we'd see him now and then but the gap was too big. Dug soloed for the sprint win. At the bottom we were treated to muffins made by Rachel, Mark's wife. The lemon muffin I had was amazing.

Then I got a cold (I could feel it coming on Friday) and I was laid up all weekend. It pained me to see a nice Saturday wasted. But I'm feeling better now and will be back at it tomorrow morning with a mountain bike ride with my neighbor. I'm feeling the riding days are counting down so I better get in every one I can.