Coming and going.
Those in attendance
John Majikes and his brother Matt.
Kevin and Theresa Smit
Steve and Carolyn Sparano
Jae Brainard
Steve Cope
Sarah Powell.
John quickly introduced his brother to all riders. Matt was stopping with his family to visit John on their way to Disney World. Matt is training for a fund raising ride to help fight diabetes. Matt’s young son, Daniel, has type 1 diabetes, and has had to use and insulin pump since he was two years old to help regulate his blood sugar. Both John and Matt will be riding the JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International) Ride to Cure Diabetes. The ride is on June 23 and is a 100 mile ride.
Please contact John at
majikesj@nc.rr.com
and pledge any amount to help the cause.
Matt brought his bike and wanted to ride with this motley band of cyclists to see if what John was telling him had any truth at all.
Each of the ride members provided lots of condolences to Matt for having to grow up with John as a brother. Matt was quickly beginning to understand that this group was fun loving and treated each member with equal disrespect. This seemed to generate a large smile on Matt’s face. A group of riders that do not take themselves serious is hard to find. With that said we all wanted to know where the heavy hitters were today.
Where was coach ?
Where was Brian Farkas ?
Where was Ernest Davis ?
Where was David Bridenbaugh ?
Where was everyone else ????????
Time to join the fun.
The answers are as follows.
Coach was in Wilmington moving his daughter from one college housing situation to another.
Brian was recovering from his brutal attacks from last weekends ride. He rides till he pukes and then licks his wounds until fully recovered for his next session of attacks on the pack of riders. ( Truth is he was visiting his mother who was recovering from a hip replacement operation).
Ernest was in the mountains of Virginia mountain biking and supporting his wife Amy while she did the century (100 miles) at Mountains of Misery on the roads near Blacksburg Virginia.
Ernest provided a write up of his mountain biking adventure and the ride route. I will include that as a supplemental ride write up.
David Bridenbaugh shows up only when he gets board hammering the peddles by himself and is need of good comedy relief. David is a hard charging bicyclist that needs to use our standard rides as a rest day.
Clearly this weekend did not fit into his Herculean riding regiment.
Everyone else ?
For the group that was there they each got ready to ride as we discussed who was riding with who, how far, and what route. The smell the Roses and the Testosterone (soon to be renamed the wilted roses) groups both elected to ride the 33 mile route. They however elected to ride in opposite directions. Smell the roses would take the counter clock wise approach and the (newly named) wilted roses would ride in a clock wise path. The clock wise path would put the hills closer to the fist half of the ride. Off the two groups rode. The spit in direction occurred in the first ½ mile. The roses took the normal turn into the Preston neighborhood, the wilted roses stayed straight on high house across Davis and left after the bridge. We have not ventured onto this road for most of the year due to construction. This area is now wide and smooth and again a favorite for bikers. The Wilted Roses (formerly known as the testosterone group) rode a smooth pace early to try and warm up for the early arrival of hills. Matt seemed to enjoy the camaraderie and silly combative chit chat. John was clearly proud to have his brother in attendance as a member of the ride group. We learned that Matt’s longest ride to date this year was 21 or 24 miles. This was going to be his longest training ride of the season. Our mission was to subject him to head winds, hills, high speeds, silly antics, and verbal abuse. The greatest gift we could bestow on a new team member. Matt sensed that this was all about to unfold and that seemed to spur him on to feed it back and respond to all challenges. We worked well together as a pack. The fat man along with Steve Sparano, and Steve Cope did a great deal of pulling from the front. Kevin was still recovering from his Tuesday and Thursday rides with Spin Cycle. He had two strong performances on these days, and was bragging to all about how well he rode. This was also his level setting speech to let everyone know he was not at the top of his form due to these back to back stellar performances.
The reverse route was interesting and challenging. Amazing how a simple change in direction can re-ignite the joy of the route, and throw new challenges at the rider. Having the hills early in the ride forced a slower warm-up and an early thigh burning experience, yet allowing for a longer cool down with the pack staying more closely aligned towards the end. The two groups riding in opposite directions meet on Martha Chapel Road.
The Smell the Roses group was all smiles and had a solid draft line established. The wilted Roses where all scattered about with little form or function, they were in total chaos at that time in the ride.
This was partly due to the constant bantering, and short feeble attacks from Steve Cope. It was on this stretch that the pack was passed by a lone rider on a recumbent bicycle. What is more amazing is that we had plenty of warning that we where being overtaken as Kevin announced early on by spying this individual through the use of Kevin’s mirror. Everyone in the pack watched as Steve Cope slowly moved towards the front of the pack to position himself for the pounce on this lone rider. The pace quickened as Steve began to crouch for the attack.
The packs banter became a hushed whir of wind and rear cluster.
All eyes were on Steve Cope as each team member readied for the anticipated chase and a coordinated effort to dominate this lone rider.
Closer the lone ride approached. The pack breathed and peddled as if transformed into a single living organism. Hear he comes Kevin whispered to all. Steve Stood on the Peddles, leaned forward. The sound of subtle gear shifting could be detected under the rhythmic breathing of this newly formed organism as it anticipated its next move.
The lone rider swung wide as he raced past the group. His missionary position on the bike startled even the most seasoned rider in the pack.
This recumbent had the rider riding with legs higher than head. The high cadence of the riders peddling technique had the bike swaying back and forth and bouncing up and down.
All eyes were on Cope.
Slowly Steve lowered himself down onto the seat and sat up straight.
The pack slowed in total surprise to this unanticipated response from Cope.
30 seconds of silence became a minute and then two.
“If Brian was here he would have attacked” announced Cope.
What went threw each members mind is as follows;
You are right Brian would have attacked.
But Cope would also.
But Cope did not attack.
Why didn’t Cope attack?
Does he need Brain to attack?
Was the rider on the recumbent too low to the ground for Steve to swat at and do dental damage as a form of intimidation?
We can only wonder what Steve Cope was thinking.
Steve broke the silence and everyone’s mental debate with the following comment.
“Aren’t you Proud of me for not attacking?”
This was clearly his method of putting spin on the fact that he whimped out and could not even consider an attack without Brian to set the stage for him.
Kevin used diplomacy and found a way to help Steve live with the fact that he WHIMPED out.
Kevin announced.
“Very mature of you Steve”.
That is all Steve needed to feel safe to not have attacked. Steve continued to share with each rider in the pack how his maturity came into play that day.
On this ride we learned about how Steve Cope blew the engine on his pick up truck trying to show off to some young college girls on his way to a fishing trip. How Red Neck! We also learned that Steve can not get it up with out Brian there to set the stage for the attack.
We learned that Matt has never ridden so hard for so long on so many hills, and with so many a## holes.
We learned that Kevin likes to wine. Not news.
We learned that John still claims to have a new Mercedes sports car – that we have not yet seen.
We learned that Steve Sparano Can ride just as hard as he does any given day even having jet lag from his vacation to Italy and having consumed 3 bottles of wine the night before.
The smell the roses riders completed their 33 mile ride at record pace.
The group finished strong and entered to final destination only 15 to 20 minutes behind the Wilted Roses riders. Each of the riders in the Smell the Roses ride said they enjoyed the ride , that they felt strong, That Jae set the Pace early on and drove the pack hard with her strong preformance. This was attributed to her new hair cut that streamlined her and helped her to keep cool during her gruling pace setting pulls. Towards the end Carolyn and Sarah pulled the others along in response to the finish line. They acted like Cope, Coach, and Brain Farkas do as they begin to smell the finish line. Each member of the Smell the Roses group were very proud of their accomplishment and each said it is getting easier and even more fun than the last ride.
The group all assembled to visit, share stories about the ride, eat bagels, and drink coffee, or other drink.
Matt ordered Pizza and shared with the group.
A great ride with Great People on a Great day.
Don’t miss out on the fun and friendship any longer.
The season is in full swing.
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