Rome 200K Brevet

What a great ride with a great group today!  Twelve of us rode together the whole way.  Well, two dropped off at the very end due to a flat – bummer.  Otherwise, it was a really fun ride.

I was especially thrilled to ride with fellow Sorella members Julie and Jennifer:

Jennifer, Julie, and me

I’ve gotten to know Julie over the past year through several brevets we’ve ridden together.  In fact, our first ride together was last year’s Rome 200K.  I met Jennifer thanks to Julie.  Several months ago Julie linked me up with a group of women who will do the Race Across America (RAAM) this June!  I’m so excited!  We’ll be a team of four, including Jennifer, Korey, Lauren, and me.  Jennifer, Korey, and I are all from Georgia, and Lauren is from California.  We’re racing as a Sorella team.  Sorella is a women’s cycling group based in Atlanta.  By the way, I’m also still on the Georgia Neurosurgical team in Macon, doing my time trials and group rides with them.

Weather or Not…

I’ve been riding all winter, regardless of dark, rain, or cold.  Not that I relish getting out in such conditions, but usually it’s not so bad once I actually get out there, thanks to adequate equipment.  Maybe I’ve just gotten numb to it…literally.  This morning we started out around 25⁰.  I’ve got good cold weather gear and felt relatively comfortable, except for my fingers, which still hurt for a while at the beginning of cold rides like this despite my heavy gloves.

Today I experienced something new.  I filled my water bottles at home and carried them inside my nice, warm, car for the 2½-hour drive to Rome.  Within about the first hour of the ride, they froze!  I was kind of gnawing on them, trying to get at least a few drops of moisture.  Fortunately, the temperature rose significantly after a few hours, and my bottles thawed.

Critters

The route took as past some chicken farms – lots of them.  The pungent odor particular to chicken litter wafted around us a number of times throughout the day.  I’m kind of used to it; I live in a rural area, and my father-in-law used to be in the chicken business, to the tune of 40,000 of them!  We also smelled cow manure a few times.  Several of us agreed that cows smell better than chickens.  Additionally, we were treated to skunk a time or two.  And don’t forget the dead possum and the dead armadillo in the road about 10 meters apart.  I didn’t smell them, but they did add to the critter ambience.  That actually made me sad because I love animals of all kinds.  On a happier note, I enjoyed hearing a few choruses of upland chorus frogs, which mate during the winter.  They are the first frog species I hear every year.  Their call (males) sounds like rubbing your fingers over a comb.

Little/Big

The overall theme for the day was little and big.  We rode on both Little Texas Valley Road and Big Texas Valley Road.  Then there was my average power for the ride, 146 W.  Contrast that with Dick, who did a great deal of pulling throughout the day.  Although he doesn’t have a power meter, I joked that he must have had an average power of about 800 W.  He’s a big, strong rider, and I could almost see the watts radiating from his body as he pedaled.

Here’s the last little/big aspect of the day:

Chicken Little returns to the mother ship.

To chase away the winter blues and to entertain myself, I’m posting on Facebook a photo of myself in my chicken mask every day in January.  Friends have even started making requests.  Two friends – including Jennifer! – requested Chicken Little; therefore, I had to oblige.  I made a slight detour to the Big Chicken in Marietta on my drive south after the ride.

Thank you, fellow randonneurs, for terrific companionship today.  And thank you to Kevin, Chris, and Roger for all of your support!