Weekend Rides: Club & Vintage

We're in the heart of brevet season (200, 300 down and 400k next weekend). To stay in reasonable shape, I set a goal of 100 miles on the off weekends, preferably short fast rides on Saturday and Sunday.

This weekend worked out perfectly, almost to the mile.

On Saturday, I did a 67-mile Gyro ride, lead by Tony and Bert. Wes and JoeRay were along as well and we did a fast course from NW Raleigh up through Creedmoor-Hester-Stem-Butner. Here's a partial record of the course, made with the i-phone until the battery gave up the ghost. Something funky happened to the track toward the end.



Sunday, I showed up for what had been billed as a vintage ride with Geof.



It was advertised as "friction shifters" only. I went down in the basement, looked for one of the old rides that would take minimal effort to get rolling. The winner? A white 69 Raleigh Pro.



I pumped up the tires, put water in the TA water bottle and headed to Geof's.



I guess something got lost in the translation when the word vintage was bandied about. Geof rolled out a Giant aluminum frame with Campy index shifting.



Hmmm. This is vintage? Absolutely, he said. It's only a 9-speed. It's at least two generations old. I guess by two generations Geof means 10-speed and 11-speed. No matter. It's a sharp looking ride.

That settled, we headed south of Cary for a fun and fast loop that took us through Apex and a winding, rolling route down to Bonsal. There's a small railroad there that operates along a five-mile track to New Hill.



You can also see it on this Google Street View.


View Larger Map

On the weekends families come out with the kids for an open air train ride. It looks like a really fun time. Geof and I ducked under a canopy and enjoyed a very sweet lemonade from a vendor set up under a Tiki umbrella.



Break time over, we shot straight up Old Highway 1, which also hosts Bike Route 1. Geof did most of the pulling. He is looking exceptionally strong these days. We got a nice wind push nearly all of the way home and I rolled into Geof's driveway with 34 miles.

The weekend total: 101. Goal met. Now time to carbo/fat load for next weekend's 400K.

This was a fun day for a vintage ride. Perhaps it's time for regularly scheduled event. Friction shifting only.