Well, I’m riding the Parkway bike trail with some regularity.  There are about 3 decent hills on the way out to Hoadly road and 1 on the way back.  The bugs are out in force – I ate 2 grasshoppers the hard way today!  The first one wasn’t too bad but the second one was pretty bitter.  Crunchy too.

What I’ve been doing lately is to do the Parkway ride first and then hang a left on Hastings and work my way back around back to the airport and then down 28.  I haven’t measured it but I’d guess it’s around 30 miles.  It’s a great ride with only 2 dangerous spots: crossing Liberia and crossing the 234 bypass over by the airport.  Neither needs to be fatal but you can’t take anything for granted.

So, today I went into work early so I could bag out early to do the Parkway ride – it’s a nice day!  I took the ride at a decent pace and was cranking on the way back when I came to the bridge.  I normally slow down a bit there as the walkway on the bridge accumulates a lot of grit and broken glass (what is it about beer bottles and the bridge?) and I had hit something crunchy on the way out.  So, I took it out of the big ring and eased on the brakes.

I was about halfway through and I was congratulating myself on my restraint and thoughtful speed adjustment when…I looked up from the road in front of me and spied what looked to be a bright yellow jersey about halfway up the hill in front of me.  Without even thinking, I popped in another gear on the back ring and started picking up speed.  I got off the bridge and could see it was another guy on the hill in front of me.

Without even thinking, I popped in another gear and set sail to catch that guy in front of me.  This proves just one thing and I’ve said it before: if you put 2 guys on bikes you don’t have a bike ride; you have a race.  I put the big ring in on the front and stood up to get the pace set right.  As I kept the pace up, I saw the guy in front of me turn his head and take note.  He picked up the pace and crested a hill, disappearing from view.

I crested the same hill and made a turn and he was stopped at an intersection about 50 feet away.  I was surprised but I slowed and called out to see if he was ok.  He turned, smiled and said that he had pulled over to make an adjustment.  I stifled a smile, said, “ok” and cranked on around him.  Now, he might have had some minor adjustment to make but we all know why he pulled over:

He knew I was going to catch him…:)