By Allan Edmonds
About 150 club members missed out on a classic BBC ride. We did our first 8 am start today, with about 28 riders there. The day was beautiful, if a little cool that early in the morning. One of us went off half-cocked and had to go back home and get our sun glasses (not mentioning any names).
Low Gap Road to Martinsville is in large measure the reverse of club favorite the M and M Ride, except that it is a little shorter, using Low Gap instead of Mahalasville Road. Both rides are among our most moderate mid-distance rides. If you're looking to move up to a longer distance these two are probably the best ones to try. Indeed we had a couple of people doing their first ride at this distance.
As usual for this large of a group we eventually split up into at least three main groups. Everyone re-grouped on Tunnel Road and everyone at least saw each other at the service station in Martinsville, however.
Tunnel Road Regroup
One rider went down in some of the sand and gravel on a twisty down hill on Shiloh Road. No serious harm to body or bike. But someone is going to be sore on the shoulder and leg and have to get a new jersey and new seat bag.
Most people stopped at the Touchables Sculpture Garden and those who got there early explored the grounds. Although there is a no Trespassing sign, the BBC has standing permission to explore the gardens and sculptures while on our bike rides. For more on sculptor C. R. Schiefer and his work, check out his
web site.
Touchables Stone Garden
One nice thing about this route is the 10+ miles up north where the road is flat and even OWLS can sail along in a double pace line at 20 mph. Klaus Rothe offered up the new acronym FOWLS. You can conjure up in your own mind what F might stand for. Even slower riders had something like a 15.5 average on the bike at the stop at the Martinsville Shell Station at about mile 30 or so.
Martinsville stop
As we came back in on Old 37 Klaus tried to interest people in climbing Boltinghouse. He got one taker, our leader Jennifer Miers. The rest of us headed back into town the regular way through Cascades. Greg Alexander couldn't resist stopping at the impromptu fruit stand near there, where they claimed to be selling Carolina peaches. We didn't stop to wait for him since he planned to leave us soon anyway as he headed home on the north side. We can report that the road through Cascades is now open to regular traffic, with the retaining wall along the creek fully repaired.
Our group of OWLish riders got back to the park shortly after noon, with an average on the bike over 51 miles of about 14.5 mph, and about 12 mph overall, including stops.
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