Cervelo Rides

Instead of posting individual reports of my rides, here area few shots and descriptions of my favorites (and one not so favorite) over the last month. In reverse order. Lots of fun miles so far!!!!

June 1, 2008:

Northern RACC Route. Cue music "dun, dun, dun...dududun". We met up at Battle Ground Lake at 9am for a quick open water swim and then changed into our riding clothes and prepared for a day of climbing. But a few of us weren't REALLY prepared. Haha. Two hours into the ride we stopped to regroup and compare computer data. Only 15 miles so far! And Bob had a reading of 1800 feet of climbing already. It was going to be a loooooonnnngggg day.

Around mile 30 we stopped again in La Center and had my sweetie-pie Ken come grab Nadine. She hadn't been on her bike much this season, but she kicked major butt by making it this far into the ride!!! About 10-miles later I had him grab me so that we could make it home in time for our wine bottling appointment. Priorities, you know.

Anyway, the ride really was specatcular. It wound up past the East Fork Lewis river, through lots of back country and farm land, past the upper Lewis River, and back through thick cedar forests and lightly populated towns. Lots of wildlife and scenery -- we even saw a bull elk (heard it too!) and a few deer here and there. And honestly, the climbing was EXACTLY what I needed!

Ride time -- 40.40 miles, 3300 ft of climbing, 02:53:42 (13.86 mph pace)

Nadine, Natalie, and Jeff checking out Molton Falls:

Bob at the Molton Falls stop. By the way, this dude kicks some wicked heiny on the bike:

Me at the stop at Molton Falls. I wish I could photo-shop that goofy ass cheese-grin off my face:

May 12, 2008:

Beaches Ride! Every Monday night, the "big kids" meet up for a flat and fast ride out past Vancouver Lake and back. One of two things typically happens: 1) they ride easy on the way out so that I can hang on and then take off fast on the way back and that's where I get dropped, 2) they ride fast the entire time and I get dropped in the first couple of miles. But THIS time, I hung on almost the entire ride, and only fell off when the pace hit 28 mph. Woohoo!!!

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures. I was too busy riding! But here's the ride data -- 28.62 miles, 21.20 mph average which includes some of the puttin' around riding at the beginning and end.

May 9, 2008:

The week leading up to this Saturday ride was a particularly high volume week for me. So I was tired, my attitude sucked, and the last thing I wanted to do that morning was hop in the pool and then climb on the bike for a 3-hour ride. The plan was to go from the club, across the river into Portland, down Marine Drive to Troutdale, then climb up to Crown Point...and then back. About 2 miles into the ride I got dropped from the main group and was pretty much ready to call it a day. A couple people hung back with me (pity ride!), but once I got to Troutdale I knew it was time for me to turn back. K-Dawg turned around with me, and then we met up with Jeff and Natalie (they were on their way to Troutdale, but turned around when they saw us), and we all rode to the club together. So the 3 hr 50-miler turned into a 2.5 hr 37-miler.

Me on the way back. Hey, at least I pulled out a smile!:

May 4, 2008:

I had ridden Ride Around Clark County 67-miler the day prior to this ride. But the sun was shining (a rarity in May) and I hadn't seen my friend Kris in ages. She lives out in the gorge across the river from Hood River -- a beautiful area -- and I just couldn't pass up a play date with her. We drove a few miles from her house in order to avoid the bigger hills (note the 67-miles the day before...) and rode until we reached snow and couldn't go any further. At one point 2 elk jumped across the road right in front of us. Awesome!

We took a slightly different route back to the car in order to cross the Little White Salmon river. I had never seen the put-in for that stretch before, so it was fun to have a picture in my mind for when people talk about kayaking it.

Ride Time -- 20 miles, 01:25:00

Kris and I at the turnaround:

Me at the turnaround (note the snow in the very top of the photo):