Eleven, Essentially Solo

It was time for my August R-12 ride. For various reasons,the usual suspects were unavailable.  Many were satisfying their R-12 requirement on some little brevet in France. Figuring I'd be riding solo, I picked a non-epic route. Hillsboro-Dallas. Ken also signed up, and at the start I was pleasantly surprised to see Ray.

Weather was supposed to be great, so, riding Lemond and wearing a sleeveless jersey.



I was on a bit of a mission. I wanted to finish in under 10 hours. I also wanted to finish in time to catch a ride with the spouse to his company picnic. He figured I wouldn't be done in less than 12 hours. I didn't think so :-)

Started out with Ken and Ray, but there was a bit of pace differential. At the corner of Geiger and Fern Hill, Ray and Ken continued together and I went on ahead.



I kept my stops short, and made it to Dallas in 4.5 hours. There I did stop long enough to eat a yogurt. Passed Ray and Ken approaching the Hwy 22 crossing on my way back.

Haying was in full swing, and I do like pictures of stripey fields.  The sun made a cameo 3 second appearance; otherwise, cloudy all day.



Back to Dayton, where I sat and ate and drank. Felt a bit less zippy by this point. My hands were hurting. Apparently, Lemond and I are not as good friends as we used to be.



And north, ending up in Marcello's driveway right at 9:23 elapsed time. He was surprised to see me back so soon :-)  Fastest 200k for me EVER.  Moving average was 15.56mph.



Off to the picnic. Coworker of husband, also a cyclist: " you didn't ride over?" No, it's ok, really, I got in another ride earlier today...