A Tale of a Kinder Gentler Ride

Roses Ride Saturday – June 13

Jae – Rose Matriarch
Sheila – It's Freakin hot
Theresa – Stem supporting the Roses
Deborah - Two-saddles
Patty – Thorny Rose
Beth – Can only pedal while talking
Maryann – not scared off by exaggerated tales of Thorn distances and pace

After getting virtually left in the dust of the Thorns the previous week to be picked up by the Stems it was an easy decision for Sheila and Theresa to rejoin the more reasonable style of the Roses. Roses actually carry on conversations and stop occasionally for butt breaks and power food. And yes they also ride at a not-so-shabby pace of over 15 mph for 35-40+ miles.

The Roses & Thorns took off and stayed together thru Preston and across Davis, then the Thorns turned left on Carpenter Upchurch and the Roses opted for a right turn on Jae's Jog (aka Ron's-pull). Sheila, Theresa and Jae took turns pulling the line past Green Hope high school and then the group stopped for a brief discussion before doing the gig-jog to cross 55 on Carpenter Fire Station. Beth had to turn back before UpChuck so she could make the other 50 commitments she had for the day.

Note for the Thorns:

There are more things that need to be done during the weekend other than a 40-50+ mile bike ride. There are kids to haul to events, shopping for groceries, volunteering at the church, cleaning the house, gardening, lunch with the parent(s), doing work that did not get done during the week, laundry, mowing the grass, paying the bills, making hair appointments, getting our nails done

and did a mention shopping...

Back to the ride.

Deborah wanted to try to pull so Jae attempted to instigate a rotating draft line yelling to Maryann to tell Sheila who was in the lead to swing out to allow the next in line to take the lead. Theresa, who does not hear so well with wind in her ears, didn't get what was going on and proceeded to tell Sheila that Jae wants her to go, go, go faster and pick up the pace.

That lasted until the turn to Upchuck where Theresa dropped back to find out the true intent of Jae's instructions....
Ok we can try that down Martha's Chapel then, now that we all (especially Theresa) understand.

Drafting to a Rose is normally something we only participate in when trying to survive a very windy day or long grueling ride with a willing Thorn/Stem to let us tuck in behind them. This draft-line concept, of rotating the lead is only something that we have watched, while doing other productive work, on the Verses Network running of some foreign cycling race where the peloton consumes the leaders in the last 5 miles of some 100+ mile day of some 30 something day race event.

The Roses can do this, how hard can it be?

All regrouped at the top of Upchuck and continued on, making a right on New Hope Church Rd., where the rolling terrain allowed the group to carry on conversations, around what was going on in each of thier lives as this was one of the few opportunities to talk. Jae was looking for something to do Friday night, Sheila thought is was freekin hot, Patty was very proud of Nicole for getting into the PHD program, Maryann had been showing more houses so perhaps the economy is picking up, Theresa grilled Patty on her methods of assigning her husband yard duty tasks, and he did them! Deborah just gave notice to quit her job and was excited about her new freedom!

The group needed no brake before turning left onto 751 heading for Martha's Chapel.
The group survived the long pulls up the two steady climbs on 751 then turned right at the church and assembled there to try a “Roses pace line!”. “Every 30 seconds the lead swings out”, shouted Theresa.

The Roses executed flawlessly the first rotation of all 6 riders. On the second rotation the rear riders yelled “car-back” so the lead would not swing out into an approaching passing car (as these riders are all well practiced moms always on the look out for the safety of their herd). After this short delay the precision continued until the left turn at the lake. The “Roses” all congratulated each other on a superb execution of the pace line, after all, it was not that hard to do. There was no more mention of trying this technique again, they had mastered it and can execute again anytime they desire.

After a brief nutrition break (Deborah recommends Crank brand gue) the group headed up “Theresa's Tug” (aka Kevin's Crawl) with Sheila relieving Theresa to finish the crest with Patty in tow. They then made the second left onto Horton's Pond where the discussion continued on with Deborah describing the mental stability of Dentists and the plethora of 4 year old horse droppings in her pasture. The riders did the jig-jog onto Luther and then a group vote (Roses are a democracy not Thorn lemmings) took the right on Green Level and its 3 hills prior to the next left at White Oak Church. Taking them back to Green level and onto the familiar last 7 miles back into Preston.

Maryann was feeling her first time back in weeks with the Saturday ride and suggested a turn right to go High House back into Brueggers. The Roses without hesitation were very happy to support this plan as they truly understand the concept of a 'no-drop' ride.

At Brueggers they found Ron and Tracy there waiting to join in on further discussions of how they did not invite Jae out with them to a movie, and how lengthy the last ride write-up was, as well as other biking banter while awaiting the return of the Thorns.

So this write-up will end this now in keeping with the promise to make the write-up readable within one beverage consumption. “Roses Rule!” The “Roses” did approximately 34 miles at about 15, but who keeps track of these things?