Memorial Day Ride – Recap

Nicole and I went out on the Memorial Day ride with the group from Bicycles East. This was the third Day in a row that I had to ride. The previous two days were fairly hard, so I knew this would be a little difficult.

We started out with two other tandems also on the ride. It is nice to see tandeming becoming more popular in the area. One couple was doing the 53 and the other doing 38 miles.

Nicole and I had a plan, we wanted to finish the ride in 3.5 hours with stops. We came in a few minutes late as the wind picked up on the return. That and the fact that I was tired left us with no choice but to lengthen the published route by about a mile so we could avoid the last two climbs. It was a hard day for us.

On the ride we decided to skip the first rest stop as it was only about 10 miles into the ride. Too soon to stop and by then we were just getting warmed up. The second stop was very welcome and we filled up bottles and made the saddle adjustments. By the time we arrived at the third and last stop there was no one there except for three other riders. This was ok as we did not expect to see anyone else on the road after all the wind and hills slowed us down so much.

At the beginning we managed to stay with the front group until mile 13. At that point there were several stop lights and/or turns. Since the tandem cannot accelerate like a single bike it was like we had to sprint to catch on the back each time. That took its toll on us and we were shot off the back like we were fired out of a cannon! Still we were the first tandem to finish, I just wish it were a better finish.

We did have some mechanical difficulties on the ride as twice Nicole’s saddle tilted nose up and we had to stop to make adjustments. While my saddle position was close I did have to move it forward as it seemed I was riding on the “rivet.” I should have also raised it a smidgen at the same time.

All in all it was a good ride, on a good route. My neighbor JamesD, who came with us, also managed to finish the 53 miles about 30 minutes after we arrived. Too bad JohnD, who told me he would be there bailed on us and was a no show, it would have been nice to have the support.

Here is our ride statistics, please note that our ride varies a little from the published route as we skipped two climbs at the end and rode around them instead.