The season begins

By Mike Finger, BBC Tour Director

The first week of March marked the first Tuesday/Thursday evening training ride of the season. The rain held off (or perhaps went away entirely) and it certainly was warm enough. By 5:30 we had a small but dedicated group of riders. Besides myself, Klaus Rothe and Jim Schroeder were there, as was Bob DeGroff, Wes and a visitor, Tom, from Seattle. He said he will be around for about 10 days and I hope he gets to ride with us again. He is a strong rider (with a very nice bike)!

We decided to do the standard Thursday route out to Smithville and from there go straight across to Ketchum and back in by way of Fluck Mill and Vernal Pike. However, when we got to Smithville we realized we were having too much fun to go home so soon, so we decided to go on to Harrodsburg and come back in on Old37. The only bummer about the whole thing was that the headwind was brutal on Strain Ridge Rd. On a good day it is not unusual to be in a paceline moving along in the mid to high 20mph range. Today, it was all I could do to keep it at 13mph and it felt like I was climbing a mountain. This period of suffering was short-lived because when we made the turn at Harrodsburg this same wind was now our friend. The finish back to the park was a 'breeze'.

Total miles: 27.5mi. Average speed 17.1mph. Just under 2 hours. Sweeet!! Let's do it again soon!