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The Cyclists, Part 3
Winter was, finally, releasing its grip on the Pacific Northwest, which meant an occasional sunny day and warmer temperatures. My wife Kate, our roommate Julie and I had managed to ride fairly consistently during the course of the winter since it doesn't usually get too cold. We had purchased a good deal of rain gear and had put fenders on our old bikes to make rainy day riding feasible.
During the winter Kate and I managed to concentrate on our 'jobs' more than we had over the autumn which brought some money in. Kate was writing code for a game company and I had created a couple of phone apps for Apple iPhones. One of the apps I created was creating quite a stir among the companies I usually sold to and those companies were having a bidding war over it. In the end, the winning bid was $750,000. That amount of money would keep us cozy for a while when added to the other money I had made. Julie got a job as well working part time at our local library.
During the 2
nd
week of April, we had a stretch of several sunny days, so the three of us grabbed our new bikes and went out for our first serious ride of the year. We decided to ride out past Multnomah Falls to the interstate. There were a lot of people out on their bikes since it was a Saturday. The three of us rode a comfortable pace during the course of the 75-mile ride. When we got home, I cleaned all of our bikes while Kate brought me some recovery drink. The two women sat and talked to me while I cleaned our bikes and Julie asked, "Do you think we can go out again tomorrow? It felt so nice to ride and be dry at the same time today!"
Kate laughed and said, "Yeah, that was really nice. Where should we ride tomorrow?"
"I have a ride I used to do. We ride out to Estacada and then up to Sandy, down into the Sandy River valley and Bull Run, back up to Corbett and onto the Scenic Highway back home. It's a pretty long ride but has a lot of bailout points if it's too long. There's a fair amount of climbing and a few of the roads are pretty busy without much of a shoulder. However, it's a good training ride," I said.
Kate and Julie agreed that it sounded good. After we all showered, Julie made us a really tasty meal. Kate and I agreed that we didn't care how much money Julie brought in because she was a fantastic cook. We were both spoiled now and neither of us wanted to cook. Sometimes we were forced to by Julie's work schedule and on those days Kate and I cheated and went out for dinner!
"By the way," I said, "There are a couple of rides coming up at the end of the month that we can choose from. One is a metric century out of Salem and the other is a century ride out of Bend. You guys up for doing one?"
Julie asked, "What's the difference between a metric century and a plain century?"
I replied, "A metric century is 100 kilometers or about 62 miles long. A century is a 100-mile-long ride. So, what do you think?"
Kate thought for a second and said, "My heart would like to do the century, but my head tells me we should do the metric just to be safe. I vote for the Salem ride. We have all summer to do century rides." Julie agreed and asked what day it was on and I told her it was the last Sunday of the month. She smiled and said she had the day off. On Monday, I went online and signed all three of us up for the ride.
Our ride the next day was very long and pretty tough. It was very windy and it seemed we were riding into it all day. We did get a tailwind for the last 10 miles, but by the time we got home we were exhausted. We showered right away, had salads for dinner and vegetated in front of the TV for most of the evening. I kept dozing off, so I told Kate and Julie I was going to go to bed. Kate laughed and said, "Julie and I were going to jump your bones tonight, but I can hardly keep my eyes open, so I think you're safe tonight."
A good night's sleep really helped in our recovery from the previous day's ride. We decided to do a 50 mile ride that day in order to get our bodies and legs in shape for the long rides to come. We threw in some hills and made a point of attacking them hard to develop our climbing abilities. On the weekend, we did another ride out past Multnomah Falls in an effort to get miles and climbs into the mix.
During the Saturday, the three of us passed a couple of men, one of whom was fully decked out in professional team kit. Julie was in front with Kate and I drafting. We were going up a slight incline as we passed these guys and Julie called out '3 on your left' to warn them we were coming around. I guess these guys didn't take kindly to a woman passing them because the lead guy, in the fancy kit, stood on his pedals trying to keep Julie from passing him. Julie just kept up her pace and after a while our pro boy had to give up. As I passed them I said, "Look, we aren't racing and there's no shame to be passed by a woman. What is a problem is making us hang out in the traffic lane. You boys need to grow up!" The lead guy told me to 'fuck off', so I replied, "See, that's what I mean!"
As the road flattened out, the two guys latched onto my wheel in an effort to prove their manliness to us, I guess. I could hear them huffing and puffing with the effort, so I told Kate and Julie to hang a left across the bridge over the Sandy River, go up Stark St. and to sit on my wheel so we could ditch these clowns. Once across the bridge, the road goes up at about a 6% grade for 3/4 of a mile, so I went to the front and began applying some pressure to the pedals. After a 1/4 mile, I looked over my shoulder and saw we had dropped the two idiots pretty quickly and that they were struggling up the hill. We kept the pressure up so that the two wouldn't catch us again.
When we got home, Kate asked, "What was that all about with those 2 guys?"
I laughed and said, "I think they fancied themselves as big time racers with their fancy kit on. Their fragile 'Y' chromosome couldn't handle a woman passing them. Guys like that really disgust me and they make rides dangerous by their actions sometimes. I suppose we could have really destroyed their egos and let you take the lead up that hill!"
