Gate-Junction-Gate

Tonight, Brad made his return to the Mountain after the fateful crash at Wounded Knee a few weeks ago. We rode together from work and he said he would be taking it slowly (even though he had his go-fast bike) and that was OK with me. It was cold when I rode in this morning on Eddy so I had tights and a long sleeve jersey on but now it was getting pretty warm. Adam had forgotten something so he caught up to us at the Traffic Circle, and I don't know where JB was but he wasn't riding.

At the Gate Adam put on some speed and Brad stayed with him and I figured he'd drop back but he never did. I rode the rest of the ride solo. Sure enough, I got pretty warm in my tights but there was a strong wind so it wasn't like riding on a hot day. Somewhere around the Upper Washout I got passed by a rider from the Left Coast cycling team.

Wildlife Encounter: two small snakes sunning themselves.

At the Junction, Brad apologized and said he felt too good to ride slow... that's a good thing when you're recovering from a crash. I met another guy there who wanted to inspect my bike - he was a vintage bike collector and he told me of some really old bikes he had. He said my Merckx would hold its value really well and would even start increasing, but I enjoy riding it too much to sell it or try to keep it in collectable condition. He was an interesting guy who's been riding the Mountain since he was a kid in the '70s.

Here's a photo I found of the south side of the Mountain, taken from a Cessna airplane.

On the way down I suddenly got sprayed in the face like I had gone through a puddle, but there were no puddles. I stopped to inspect, suspecting it was Slime from my front tire and I had a puncture. That was the case but it must have worked really fast because I didn't lose much pressure. Happened a couple more times the rest of the way down but my tire stayed nice and full all the way home. Must be a piece of glass in there that keeps disloding.