Team Two Wheel Shop Ride

As spring follows winter, so dawn follows night. As the first Thursday of the month appears, so follows a Team Two Wheel Shop Ride. Maybe that isn't poetic, but it is true, which is more than you can say about a lot of what gets included in this blog.

Speaking of which, I did a post about mechanized doping. I watched the video a couple of times and I think the device is clever. I don't, however, really think that Cancellara used a motor, except his own. I watched both of those races and what Cancellara did was very tough, but in keeping with his prior known strength and his relative strength compared to his competitors. Having raced, there just are times when one guy rides away or when your own motor seems to just run out of gas, metaphorically speaking only, and a person or group jets away. I agree the video makes it seem suspicious, but I think we also have to take into account the various nationalities and the way they interact. When this video came out, a number of very high-level Italians were facing doping charges. I hate to be cynical, but throwing out this accusation took the spotlight off of them and started a whole new scandal. Now if only Cancellara was spotted with Lindsay Lohan, the whole world would pay attention.

Anyway, on to the Shop Ride. The week of the shop ride we had a bunch of rain and we seriously considered canceling the ride thinking that people wouldn't be focused on riding and the weather might turn against us. Cooler heads prevailed and we kept the date. Good for us, because it was one of the nicest weekdays to ride that week.

From Rides

We had about 25 people come out for this ride, including appearances by Riders One, Two and Three. Just like when identical twins sleep with their sibling's girlfriends, we all agreed ahead of time to pretend that we were riders other than we really are. We don't want to give up our secrets too soon and as the primary writer of the group, I don't want to be swarmed by autograph hounds at every turn, so this seemed easier.

We had an eclectic mix of riders in our group, including a couple of racers, a couple of near racers, a couple of "Moms in Motion" (as evidenced by their gear), a couple of people new to group rides and others somewhat new to cycling. We had a bit of slinky approach to this ride, where we would stretch out and then contract again. Don't worry though, we didn't try it on the stairs the way I like to with my own slinky (it's Campagnolo). We did the Seven Mile Bridge loop, starting at Two Wheel, heading down Riverside to Government Way, then through the park to the bridge and back up the other side of the river. This route does mean that Doomsday Hill is included, and I heard a couple of comments about that, but everyone did really well just plugging away and getting up the hill. Including me.

I forgot about Broadway being torn up, but we had a bit of cyclocross style adventure through the dirt, but I was actually a bit behind the group at that point and don't know whether they went around on the detour or plowed through the way I did with my companion.

The weather was very cooperative and, I think I can say fairly, everyone had a great time. And, as promised, but still nice to see, when we rounded the last corner, there was the David's Pizza truck set up and waiting to serve us some hot pies.

From Rides

Apparently this was a bit too much excitement for Geoff, one of the owners of Two Wheel, because in his high state of joy and agitation, he dumped 2/3 of a fresh, piping hot pizza onto the sidewalk. It was a pity to see something of such clear and remarkable beauty destroyed so quickly; the way you would feel standing in an art museum when a psychopathic idiot with a knife hacked a section out of your favorite Monet. Oh, you don't have a favorite Monet? How about Manet? Picasso? Singer Sargent? Oh fine, the Mona Lisa, but I was trying to avoid trite art cliches. Also, just to clarify, in comparing Geoff's act to that of a psychopathic idiot, I mean no disrespect nor do I intend to suggest that Geoff is either psychopathic, idiotic, telepathic or even photogenic; I'm just saying it was shocking. Mark Starr, the owner and chief pizza twirler at David's Pizza, was un-nonplussed by this and just calmly jumped in to make another pie. In fact, he cranked out a plethora of pizza and the crowd proceeded with enthusiastic mastication and satisfaction. In fact, as a crazy lady I once knew said, "my sufficiency has been suffonsified," or more accurately "our" sufficiency had been suffonsified. In other words, we were full of pizza.

And thus ended our Team Two Wheel ride. We rode for about 90 minutes and ate pizza. What more could you ask for in a shop ride?

From Rides

Speaking of the bike shop itself, the crew at Team Two Wheel was very well represented at our ride with owners Geoff and Bruce, and shop dudes Dave and Tomas, all riding along, while shop wrench (and damn fast rider) Tom stayed behind to keep the home fires burning and then get David's Pizza oven fires burning. They must have had fun though, because they are talking about doing a weekly ride or some other shop ride. If you are interested, leave a comment here or let they guys at Two Wheel Transit know what you would be interested in doing. They are there to serve and are looking for ways to support our collective ride needs.
Rider Three