my nephew got in from chicago last night. after the swim meet this morning, my brother-in-law, my nephew and i went out for a quick ride to harper and back. it was only 85 degrees with 50% humidity when we left.
perhaps we should've stayed home. i had a flat before we even got out of the garage. it would've saved us a bunch of trouble.
the ride started out all right. i led for the first four miles and then swung off so my nephew could lead for a bit. he took us up and over drouhard hill and most of the way to l'alpe d'anville before his dad took a pull.
we only stopped for about five seconds at the road construction traffic light before it turned green and we were able to go up and over the monstrosity. when we reached the other side we had to stop for our first on-the-road mechanical. my nephew's bar stem had come loose. his bar was flopping all over the place. it's amazing he kept the bike under control. we tightened it and went on our way.
we made it to harper before our next mishap. passing by the subway, i was talking to my nephew about his elbow position and suddenly there was a loud pop. his front tire blew out. thankfully, he'd had a bit of warning, so he didn't have to brake too hard. we changed the tire in the shade on the south side of the subway building. we got the new tube in, pumped it up and the valve stem broke off. so we had to patch the original tube and put it back on. it was crazy! on the bright side, we got a good long break.
from subway, we rode on to a convenience store for cold, liquid refreshment.
with our two breaks done, we headed back home. the trip back was blissfully uneventful - no flats or mechanical problems.
we're warmed up now, ready for our century on monday. hope the thunderstorms don't spoil our fun. (31.10 miles @ 18.7mph)
No comments:
Post a Comment