Report by Corrine
It was a small but mighty group tonight with just Maria, Jordan, and me. Others were sick, working, or out of town. It seems like we had already done this ride this year. How many times do we go up the Parks to Cripple Creek to Isberg? Maybe the ride leaders need to mix it up a bit more. Oh wait, that would be me. Okay, maybe we will try to think of something different for next year! Like ride this route in reverse. That might be kind of fun, especially climbing up the steep part of Chena Ridge. Hmmm. I’ll have to remember that when planning for next year.
Anyway, we headed out and up Gold Hill, taking turns leading, surging and falling behind. Once we got out on the Parks, we once again each took turns surging ahead to be overtaken by somebody else. It was fun and we made it to Cripple Creek pretty much all together, so we didn’t even stop but just kept going. Jordan was behind on one downhill and I think a dog ran out and barked at her but she said she was okay so we didn’t stop.
I surged ahead on Isberg and decided to just go for it. I kept looking back, expecting Maria to catch me but I managed to stay ahead of her for the whole climb. It never gets any easier. We then bombed down Chena Ridge to Chena Pump and regrouped on the bike path. We decided to try the bike path this time instead of the road but there was too much gravel, and it wasn’t any fun so back out to the road we went. We had a nice paceline all the way back on Chena Pump and then turned right on Palo Verde to ride through the subdivision before heading back to campus.
We all decided that 21 miles was enough for tonight (28 for Jordan since she biked to and from the ride) so we skipped the loop up Miller Hill to Yankovich. I’m sure if Erica was here, she would have convinced us to do that. But she wasn’t so we ended early.
Distance: 21 miles
Avg speed: 17.9 mph
We have one more ride starting at UAF next week. Hope to see you there.
