Hey Kevan, the Bloomin Metric

[PaulE]

Hey Kevan,

I'll be looking for you at the Bloomin Metric on Sunday. My buddy and I hope to start riding about 7:30 am. Hopefully we finish before any thunderstorms.

Have a great ride if I don't see you!

[Kevan]

in the parking lot waiting for registration to open!

I'll likely be be there around 7:30, jumping on my bike by 8. Hope to see you there and not the rain. :D

[PaulE]

OK, save me bagel!

[Sandy]

Kevan hopes to finish before winter. It will be close!


Sensitve Sandy

[Kevan]

PaulE,

Where were you?!

Jeff Weir,

Was that you.... the guy taking a nap under a tree at mile marker 12? Or was that you yelling at me at the last food stop?

csb,

Good to see you again even if it was near the parking lot at the end of the ride. I'm just happy I didn't have to embarrass you out there with my riding friends looking on. ;)


Good ride, but a rough start. There had to be over 3k cyclists out there! Getting to the parking lot at the start was a bit nasty and the weather was damp and foggy at first. About half way through the ride the sun broke out and everyone was in their element, well...except for the car drivers traversing, or running with the route, they were basically furious.

Rode with my lbs owner, Eric, for a short while and suggested that he was partly at fault for the crowds and that he should be trying to sell more mtb bikes from here on out. I'm mean… this sport has reached a critical juncture, either everyone rides or we have to keep the numbers smaller. I did enjoy riding by golf courses and couldn't help notice that the people out there seemed to be paying more attention to us than their silly balls.

This is one event I always look forward to and now I have a whole year to wait until the next one.

[PaulE]

Kevin,

I looked all over for your handsome mug!

We got there at 7:00 AM, and our reward for getting there early was to park on the wet grass instead of in the parking lot! :confused: We hit the road about 8 and finished by 12. For me, it was a new personal record. This year I averaged 17.5, vs 16.1 last year. No big deal for some of the speed demons on this forum, but I am ecstatic.

There were a ton of Serottas yesterday. The only model I didn't see any of was the Ottrott. My favorite was a purple Legend with matching purple saddlebag and purple tires. Who makes purple tires?

I only saw one Calfee the whole day. It was a red one, and the guy had a Swiss Assos jersey on. Was that MikeMets? I was going to ask him if he was MikeMets, but I chickened out.

[Jeff Weir]

What a great ride. As you said, a bit cool first thing, but cleared up nicely for most of the ride. Huge crowd. Huge parking hassles. Great rest stops. I personally checked out EVERY port-o-john and I can state the they were the nicest I've ever seen. A nice touch was putting and DVD playsers inside each one.
All in, I did the ride in 18 hours, 42 minutes. Another personal best.

[Kevan]

our poor Mikemets has been kicked with a bout of tendonitis so he's off the bike for a while.

Gotta agree, the wet grass was a bit of a bummer until I figured I could ride the pasture rather than walk it. Despite the morning slowdown and a few close calls with different talent riders out on the course, it was lots of fun.

I spied one Ottrott out there. He was mixing it up with me and about 30 others as we went screaming around the reservoir. There were a couple other super "S"-s out there too. Definitely a few Legends.

I saw a whole bunch of Calfees. I rode the ride with Bruce Wells on his D'fly and danced briefly with another while going around the lake. There were a bunch of others out there too. I saw the red Calfee, but don't know the guy.