Hills, Hills and More Hills.

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Distance 42.5 Miles
Max Speed , 30.5 MPH
Ave Speed 13.7 MPH
Time Peddaling,  3:04

Three of us get together every weekend for a ride.  These compliment our weekday rides with others or those we do solo.   I am always asked to plan the route and two things  always happen.   Lots of hills and we don't end up where we are supposed to be quite often.

Today we got to a spot and I said, even though the arrows tell us to go right, I know we should go left.  "It's a different route"  I said.  We were riding along with Brandon way out in front, Dave way behind and me the meat of a bicycle sandwich. Somewhere in the middle.  Twenty miles, give or take, into the ride two guys in orange pull up along side of me and say howdy as they pass,   I look back to see where Dave is and see another rider in blue really pushing up the hill we are climbing.   The first orange guy pushes hard to catch Brandon and passes him.  The second guy in orange can't quite catch him.  Blue man passes me and I see that he used up everything to catch us.

Brandon is a CAT 2 rider, which means that on flat terrain he rides along around 24-26 MPH.  After the first guy passed him he became aware of the other.  He picked up the pace just enough to keep orange 2 and blue man from making any progress.   Bike riders often do things like than and we can't help ourselves.  We are like dogs who have the instinct to chase.  If we see someone ahead we have to catch them.  If we become aware of someone chasing us, we have to speed up to prevent them from passing.

 I ride around 22 on the flats and Dave around 20.  Obviously when we ride together there is considerable space between us.   At times during the ride, Brandon slows for me to catch up and we both slow a bit for Dave.  We ride together bantering back and forth a bit but soon enough the gaps open up again.   We all know and are comfortable with our abilities and enjoy riding together.

After our little encounter the road arrows directed us to turn off that hilly road and begin our loop back home.  That's where we stopped for me to look at the map.
"You know that place a few mile back when I said it's a different route?  I was wrong. We should have taken a right there".

"I'm not riding back there"  said Brandon.

"We can take it to the bank you will get us lost" said Dave.

I responded,  "Not to worry, follow me".

Our intention was a 25 mile loop. We did 42.  No problem.

Lunch Break at Dunkin Donuts.

Dave, our designated helmet wearer. 

Brandon and Dave 

There is usually a gap between us when we ride.  Especially when Dave is doing Pilates 

Refilling the water bottles

Town line

Brandon though the signs was "ill"  as he says it.