That’s right, folks. If you were to look at Strava’s analysis of our ride yesterday, you’d see a tale of two bike rides. The first twelve and the second ten miles. I’d advertised the ride as “slow and short” because my wife and I had to get our daughter to her swim meet by 10am.
We rolled out at 7:30, the earliest “safe” light to Mike leading us out at between 14-16-mph. Diane took the next turn and, surprisingly, took the pace to 19-mph. Then Brad inched that up to 20 until we passed his house. Till that point, both Diane and Brad aren’t known for driving the pace, the speed was surprising. Next in line was Dale, and he is known for driving the pace. He was up to 22 in no time and I had to call up to reign him in. I know if I’m struggling, there are others on the ride who are miserable. On the tandem, it’s a little tricky to tell but that axiom held true yesterday. The pace was brought back to “slightly offensive” and we rolled on.
Jess and I had a 22-mile route planned and figured everyone else would go longer – and I have to be honest, I hoped that would be the case. She and I haven’t had a nicely paced “us” ride where we can talk and laugh and catch up… like a date on a bike, if you will (more on that in a future post; thanks, Jesse). Alas, when we turned, the whole group turned. We were in the lead on the lone tandem and we had a nice little decline for about a half-mile. Gravity being gravity, we had the pace up to 25 as things flattened out and only brought it back to 21-1/2. I mentioned to my Rear Admiral that we should dial it back because it’s kinda not cool to pull the pace back to 19, only to drive it to 22 when we take the lead.
And so we did, and cruised on.
Until Mike came around singing, “Boo boo be-doo, boo boo be-doo”, his way of saying this is too easy. We’d been up front for a couple of miles and McMike went with him to chase him down for the Gaines City Limits Sign. We laughed and let the old farts play.
Once on Ray road, about nine miles from home, Mike came around again with his “boo boo be-do” at 21-mph. We’d just led up a hill and Jess said, “Oh, that won’t do… gimme a second to catch my breath and we’re going to get him.” She caught her breath and we put the hammer down. We passed him at 24 and held that speed. Now, we figured we’d play for a mile, then drop the pace back again, but Dale & McMike and Brad came by to keep the pace up. Jess and I held Brad’s wheel but I soon chose to go around him. Brad is a freak of nature. He’s almost 75 and has an iron will… but he’s terrible to draft off of because he hangs back a little bit and he’s a little squirrely with his tempo. He’s impossible to follow on a tandem at that speed unless you’re a lot stronger than my wife and I.
We kept the pace pegged all the way home – 23 to 26-mph the all the way to our street. Phill managed to stay on our wheel but we dropped everyone else. Our average in Gaines was in the high 16-mph range. It was 19.6 when we stopped (we were Strava’d to 19.5)…
And so it was, the tale of two rides. My wife and I were all smiles, hugs and kisses after that one. The ride was phenomenal and we had a wonderful conversation about how well we’re working together on our tandem. No place I’d rather be on a Sunday morning (or any other day for that matter!).
Fit Recovery 
Funny how I got into Byron and realized that everyone turned back, it was such a nice morning also.
How did THAT happen?! LOL!!!