Tour de Olney

Biking has become a huge thing in our ward of late. Probably due to rising gas costs, more people have been purchasing road bikes to commute to work and have picked up riding for fun on the weekends. Also our ward had a 180 miler over a three day period where the young men biked the C&O canal route here in Maryland. That was about a month ago. I loaned my mountain bike to a friend who was a young men's leader and he did the trip.

I have never owned a road bike or even ever ridden on one. I've always grown up having a mountain bike. The road bikes had always seemed kinda femme to me growing up, with their thin tires and bent handle bars that looked like an old goats horns that curled around. They didn't seem very sturdy. I didn't understand how one could hold onto the handle bars without crashing.

We were playing basketball the other night and a friend who had recently taken up road biking asked me if I'd like to join him and 4 other guys on a 100 mile race on Saturday the 6th. I gave it some serious thought, but after talking to my wife she talked some sense into me and made me realize that I didn't have to do the race (there was an entry fee of like $35) right at first and I should just go riding with the guys some weekend to see how I liked it. It's kind of ironic that she is so logical about some things and talks some sense into me, and other times I am the logical one and I try to talk some sense into her (like her freecylce addiction! Wait, I can't talk any sense into her about that. I will give it to her though, we have got some pretty nifty things through freecycle)

Anyhow, another guy Craig, in the ward about my age also owned a mountain bike. We were both pretty fit guys (or so I'd like to believe), and when the same friend invited me to go riding with them on Labor day, a mere 30 mile "joy" ride, I accepted and told Craig. We both wanted to see how we would fair with the roadsters. We were to leave at 6:15 the next morning for a 30 mile bike ride, and we had an hour and a half to do it.

I couldn't sleep well that night, I kept dreaming about biking and if I could keep up with the road bikers on my mt. bike. I got up at 5:30 the next morning, at a huge breakfast so I would have energy, and I was out the door riding my bike 3.3 miles in the dark to the rendezvous point. When I got there, only 2 other guys were there, with their road bike attire (spandex), and were surprised to see me there (shorts and a t-shirt) without a road bike.

We'll Craig showed with his mt. bike so it was us two tagging along with the 4 roadsters. We kept up fine for the first 10 minutes. But we both realized we had bitten off more than we could chew when we were pedalling hard on the downhills only to keep up with the roadsters who were just coasting. Then we hit our first big hill.

I felt like I was in high school track again, me giving it my all while running only to be way behind the other guys. I was pedalling as hard and as fast as I could only to see them reach the top of the hill and I was only half-way up. Craig was right behind me. My legs felt like rubber. I wanted to stand and use my standing momentum to pedal, but I didn't even have the strength to stand. I was so winded. I stopped and got off my bike to finish walking it up the hill. The roadsters where long gone and had left Craig and I in their dust.

We trekked on for a while longer. To rub salt in our wounds we came to another hill only to be passed by an older overweight man on a road bike. We came to a T in the road and had two choices. Turn left and try to find the 4 guys in our group, or turn right and head on home. We chose the right and pedalled home with that bitter taste in the mouth that comes not from being worn out, but from having just swallowed ones pride.