Junction from Work

Adam said a friend of a friend that he'd met recently wanted to come up North Gate with us today but Adam wanted to do a fast ride so I agreed to take the new guy up and make sure he got there. He was supposed to be a good athlete but new to biking. So we connected with Jason out on Walnut Avenue and rode to the Gate together. We were kind of concerned because he seemed to have trouble keeping up on the road out there. Turned out he just wasn't comfortable riding close together.

JB had gotten a head start and then Adam dropped Jason and me after about a mile. We talked a little but he was going pretty hard for a newb. I was sure he'd have trouble with the Bump so I dropped back a little bit and let him ride his own ride but he didn't have any trouble at all. He even waited for me around the bend at the top.

After that he poured it on and dropped me again! That was a little embarassing but what the heck, he'll be getting good at this. It was pretty hot and I think I was kind of dehydrated because my pulse was high even though I didn't think I was working that hard. Plus today was the day Floyd Landis cracked in the Alps so that was depressing. Anyway, Jason did 42+ and I did 46+. There was a sign saying Summit Road was closed but there didn't seem to be much construction going on - a few places where they had put in some new drainage components to keep the roads from washing out again, some spilled gravel and the like, but nothing that tears up the pavement yet.

Adam and Jason went down South Gate to their homes and I went down North Gate solo. Just before the Bump I came across a woman that I'd seen at the Junction with a flat tire. I offered her a tube but she said she was with a friend who could help, but the friend wasn't there so I started to help anyway. She said that it was her back tire and when it flatted it made a really loud noise. I didn't think of it right away but she was probably riding her brakes the whole way and had a hot tire blow-off. Then her friend came up and helped her so I took off again. Later I wished I had warned them both about how to prevent that. Only happened to me once, but that was enough!