Team Ride Report, Jooleye ThreeJD

Undeterred by the looming Celebrate-America-By-Blowing-Part-Of-It-To-Smithereens holiday festivities, twenty-one brave souls gathered at Holland's Smallenburg Park today for what proved to be an entertainingly eventfull not-quite-45-mile ride.

Roll call:

First off, Lynne G - who will be representin' for the team at the Burlington, Vermont ride in exactly TWO WEEKS!

Cindy A. & SGS Greg E.

Herb & Brenda B.

SGS Bonnie S.

Charles B (up from K-zoo for possibly his first team ride)

Becky & Chris M.

Stewart M.

Chris R.

Tom & Ian Sch.

JD S.

Kaaaaaat (every thousand miles she gets an extra "a" in her knickname)

Jeff H.

SGS and ACTW (and team pack horse) Kirsten D.

MC & Linda C.

and Head Oaf Me.

We had a couple of encounters with the dread chipseal monster, one of which gave Cindy her first flat of the day (note the implication that there were more!), and probably contributed to MC's front going mushy too. Hopefully that'll be more packed down and less loose by the Holland Hundred. Much more impressive was the kamikaze wildlife focusing on Ian - first a butterfly gave a go, and then, of all things, a bird strike! Understandably startled, Ian executed the cycling equivalent of the Triple Lindy, somehow managing to stay upright while extracting himself from his ditch-bound bike. Well done, young sir; I salute you.

One more flat pink tire and a bunch of miles later, we returned to the park for the inevitable void-filling session, featuring SGS Bonnie's Texas Sheet Cake, which you need to experience, as well as those funny little sandwich buns that are showing up in stores now (with, of course, some sandwich fixins to stick in 'em). Camaraderie was much in abundance, as it always is with this fine bunch o' folks.

So, our next team ride will be July 18 - which is the day after the Holland Hundred, and so will prominently feature a "recovery loop" option ideally including ice cream. Right now we're looking at riding from Ada Park; we'll confirm that as we get closer, though, and if you'd be interested in hosting lemme know.

Now, the Holland Hundred! Are ya riding? Are ya workin? Are ya both-ing? Awesome! I expect we're still looking for volunteers to work Friday night before, and at various times on Saturday during the ride. John Jasker's your contact person for that; his contact info will be in your email. If you're riding, I know Kirsten and I will be looking for company; we're planning on doing the whole kit n' kaboodle, leaving pretty early in the morning. Get in touch and we'll make arrangements, eh?

Hey, they Tour de France is on now! It's just like what we do! Except really, really fast. And with guys with names like Fabian and Cadel. And much less, y'know, awesome. We know awesome quite well, don't we?