Today was another hill ride, such as they are in Oklahoma. Totaling 1332 feet of ascent in 25 miles. We waited until late in the afternoon to ride because the guess-the-weather-guys said the wind would be dying down from the 30’s to the 20’s (mph). They guessed right because it did. Everyone is right sometimes.
It was a pleasant little ride, wondered about our upcoming trip to California and how bad the climbs would be. We measure everything against King Ridge, the toughest ride we have done to date. We hope to finish this next bike tour with that honor still belonging to our 2011 California tour. Nonetheless I did several of the climbs today out of the saddle because when you run out of low gears on steep climbs it is time to turn those pedals standing. I actually like changing it up, climbing seated and standing. With about 4 miles to go a much younger cyclist passed. I did my usual, “hi, how’s it going”, looking over at him, he stared straight ahead and said nothing. Being the smartass I am, I said nice to see you too, as he pushed past me. I can’t help seem to help myself.
Mark then hung the carrot out saying to me, I’m surprised you didn’t go after him. On a silent count of two, off I went. I caught him, not wanting to do more than that I stayed just behind him cresting and descending the hill. Point made, time to move on. Always feels good to show someone that you can’t judge a cyclist by bike, kit, age or gender.
Just past the bottom of the hill, there is a stop sign. He ran it, we waited on a car as it was their turn to go. He was 100-200 yards ahead of us and starting on the next climb. We were riding our usual pace laughing about catching him on the previous climb.
Before long though we caught him again and passed him, this time like he was standing still. Poor thing, he evidently burned his last match on the climb where he zoomed past us and didn’t speak.
The moral of this post: if we ride by, say hi or give a half-ass wave, but don’t ignore us.
