Busier week

On Monday night, I went to Paglai's pizza for the PRC/All 9 Yards Women's Team sponsored talk on group riding. USAC Cat 1 racer Lou Waugamann gave a good talk on group riding and race tactics. Turnout was good and covered everyone from recreational riders, to racers, as well as a few of us ultra endurance nuts. Congrats to everyone involved for putting this on.

Tuesday night I cleaned up the Karate Monkey and relubed the chain and the rest of the driveline. Sunday's ride had left it pretty well encrusted, so the easiest thing to do was use a low pressure hose and some elbow grease. I also needed it cleaned off to take it into Rasmussen's to have a bent spoke replaced and the rear mech adjusted. I need to invest in a work stand and a book or two so I can start to do this kind of work myself.

With the Monkey out of service, I took the Paramount and went on the Wednesday night ritual ride. The weather was beautiful and about 50 riders showed up at the start in front of the Ritual Cafe (thanks for staying open late for us!). The ride is billed as being a recovery ride at a social pace. Social pace can mean different things to different people however. The group of 50 broke into two groups in Waterworks Park as some of us wanted to get a few more miles in, and opted to ride the back loop first rather than the trail. We had a good sized group riding together for most of the ride, using the trails and the roads around Moffit Lake. We had an impromptu sprint up a hill by Browns Woods state park. I made a feeble attempt to catch Lou after letting him get out in front of me a bit. Needless to say I lost that "race". After the ride, I went with Rick, Sweet Jane and Donny Q over to A Dong for some post ride dinner.

Tonight, I'll be working the registration table for the first race of the PRC Race Like a Girl series.