Saturday, March 20, 2010

La Prima Vera

Today was the day of the first Spring Classic (Milan San Remo) and since it also coincided with our nicest day of the year yet here in Seattle, I decided to dust off the bike and have a spring classic of my own. Actually, my first choice had been to do a ski tour up to Camp Muir on Rainier and then ski down, but despite trying really hard to find a partner no one was interested (ridiculous!) so that wasn't going to be possible. My spring classic wasn't actually a race, since I haven't been riding my bike at all I didn't think it was worthwhile to pay for a race entry fee (and the early spring races are usually crash fests for the Cat. 4s). Instead I just went for a long ride, as mapped out on the left. It was an amazing day (sunny and 68), and I clocked 115km with some new friends (Kurt and Fred) from my cycling team. I won't describe the entire ride, rather I will just relate one funny incident: I had been chatting with Fred early in the ride, and he told me that he had just moved to Seattle a month ago, and this was his first ride of the year. Later in the ride Kurt was trucking up a hill with me glued to his back wheel and we somehow lost Fred who was not on top form. When we came to a turn I informed Kurt that Fred was MIA, and we had the following interchange:
Kurt: No problem, I'm sure he knows the area from other rides he has been on.
Me: Well, he said it was his first ride of the year.
Kurt: No big deal, he must know the area from rides he has done last season.
Me: Actually, he just moved here a month ago.
At this we both had a good laugh, and then after waiting a few more moments for Freddy to materialize we decided it was best to cut him loose on a big adventure, and after both yelling "Good luck, Freddy!" at the top of our lungs we continued on our way. Somehow Fred managed to reconnect with us a bit later on, he had been lost in Kirkland but then had seen us ride by on a parallel street. Good times!
I'm definitely looking forward to building up some cycling fitness now that the ski season is winding down (at least for me, since I can't seem to find any partners!) and the good weather and long days are here.

2 comments:

  1. Wow - good ride Cameron. 115 km - not too shabby man. We did a shorter sprint - 70km with some bumps (600m of climb total) ... but there is still ice in the rivers here and it was only +5C today! here is our route - one of the 'classic' bike training routes in the QC area;
    http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Les-Equerres-classique

    Tomorrow - skate skiing at Le Foret Montmorency!
    http://www.fm.ulaval.ca/InfoXP/neige.asp

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  2. Pretty fun that you can still get out skiing! Our snow is long gone, so I'll have to make do with the roller skis for the next 8 months!

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