It was one of those mornings. I felt like I didn’t have much
in the tank but I got on my bike anyway. When we all met up I reminded Rod that
he said it would be an easy ride. Everyone laughed because, well, we know Rod.
Someone made a joke about Rod’s inability to go easy because, well, joking is
what we do when the subjects “easy” and “Rod” come up at the same time. For his
part, Rod insisted he meant it this time; it would be an easy ride.
I don’t remember if Rod was at the front or not when we took
off, but eventually he got there. Apparently, Rod was serious this time. The easy to moderate pace continued for
some time. When KOM had to stop to relieve himself, I made a comment to the
others about Rod’s new found discipline. Rod gave us the ol’ “I told you so,” in
response and added, “I meant it this time.” We continued on, keeping that
moderate pace for the most part, eventually arriving at Hillside.
I was at the front and I heard the guys call for a right
turn to head up the hill. I stayed at the front and decided to go a little hard
since my “a little hard” on the hill approximates the group’s “easy on the
hill.” At one point I looked over my shoulder to discover no one behind me. I
slowed and waited. Still nothing.
Finally, figuring someone had a mechanical, I turned back and headed
down the hill.
When I arrived at the bottom having found no one I was truly
chagrined. “What the heck happened?” I wondered. I pulled my phone out and sure
enough, I had a message from KOM. “Brian, I hope you get this message. We
turned off Hillside.” I called him back as I headed back up the hill. As it
turned out, Rod was showing them some work he had done on a side road off
Hillside. When we finally reunited halfway up the hill, the guys gave me all
kinds of crap about “dropping” them. We turned
off Hillside and continued on several “back roads” at a nice easy pace.
I’m not sure how we got there, but at one point I looked up
and we were at Rocky Hill. After debating the merits of turning right or left,
we turned left. It was here, somewhere on Rocky Hill, that the pace picked up.
When we hit Homestead, KOM really turned it up. All thoughts of going easy flew
out the window. We were hitting 28-30 mph on the flats. It was exhilarating.
After a time and for no apparent reason, the pace eased up again. This respite
was short lived as someone took off and we did it again. We took a right hand
turn onto a freshly paved road that dropped down then eased back up a gentle incline and leveled off
again, our legs churning furiously. We hammered away until we neared the stop sign.
We eased through the stop sign and settled back into to a conversational pace.
I found myself next to Miz who turned to me and said with a
smile, “I love rides like this.”
I knew what he meant as soon as he said it. Still, I
thoroughly enjoyed the explanation that followed. He was so right on.
