Cannon Cruise

I knew going into today that I wanted some "extra" miles, so I was planning on riding to, then back from the meeting point for the weekly Cannon Cruise. Usually we do between 40-50 miles on Saturdays, so the extra 27 I thought would be a nice total of 70-ish. Well, Cannon Cruise turned out to be 64 miles, plus my 27. So I just went ahead and ripped off a nice 91 miles. Family didn't care, we had absolutely nothing planned for the weekend, perfect for Father's Day.

It was a brisk, cool morning. Absolutely NO breeze whatsoever. Sun was coming up, slight fog in the low spots. The feelings, sights, smells and sounds (pure quiet) took me immediately to Tent City USA, Luther MI - of which I will be visiting very soon. (actually, not soon enough)

Today, I led my first official pace line. Pulled along 5 men and 1 woman for probably 5 miles or so. When I was done, I relinquished my lead spot and got several "good pull" comments. Today, I also decided I was going to get myself embedded into the "action" a little more too. Usually I just stay to the back since I'm kinda new at this. Instead I was in the front, middle and rear portions of the group. Group rides have way more positives than negatives for me. However, one annoying negative that I just can't get over is that others just don't ride completely like how I've taught myself to ride and attack hills. Noth their fault I guess - everyone is different. Everyone pedals down the hills (fine - you're supposed to), but they don't engage in attacking the hill until they are actually ON the incline. So then everyone has to slow down and you merely just end up "riding" (and struggling) up the hill instead of "blazing" up the hill. The pain may be more intense the way I do it, but it's also shorter and you can leave others in the dust quickly. I took it upon myself to not just conform with the group and when things slowed down, I would make my move, bust out the side of the group and fly up the hills. I know I was getting stares as I floored it past everyone. I also found a chance to break my last top speed record and set a new 39 mph record - still poking at 40+. Need some!!

Part of our ride today was on my most favorite road in the area; Red Pine Drive. I would ride up and down that road for 8 hours a day, every day if I could.

I became lost sheep for the first time today too. The leader was gone (presumably riding his own route by now) and as I passed one other guy, I missed the turn off. He was shouting at me, but there was too much wind. It was on a giant decent and I was just hammering down the gaz, turned around expecting him there. Nothing. Hmmm...that's not right. I better head back (uphill, of course) and there they were waiting for me. HA - thanks guys for waiting for my dumba$$.

When I'm back in Cedar Springs, I always make a point of riding through downtown. My legs are always juiced up with more gaz to spend (ENERGY LEGS!!!) and I like to impress all the sweatpants-wearing 400 lb women riding their Rascal scooters to go get the their pack of smokes and six-packs with government money. (It's a sickness of mine to want to crush all of their faces in with my Tour de France speed wind - leaving them in my wake. Blowing them away with invisible wind waves (like sound waves)) Anyways, traveling along a good clip, look back to get into the turn lane before coming up to the red light. A guy rolls up next to me wearing a Rescue/Fire hat and uniform and says "Doing a good clip there. Averaging about 25 mph." He had been following me this whole time. HA HA....I shrugged and said "Yup, I know. Gotta do speed limit ya know." He just chuckled, wished me a good day and was gone.