Cyclisme train in the rain

Sunday Dec. 11th John, Jeff, Aaron & Greg rolled out from PSU shortly after 8:00 am to Woodstock to engage Ken and Ian LeGros in the Sunday Cyclisme training ride. A newcomer to the Sunday rides, tall & lean Aaron was fitted on a classic Celeste Green Bianchi w/ campy. Minor saddle height adjustments en route to the LeGros' seemed to increase the comfort and performance of Aaron's ride. Jeff, Greg and Aaron practiced some close quarters riding and paceline skills through the quiet streets to Woodstock.

Upon arrival at the LeGros residence, JB cajoled Ian into loading up his little red Specialized into the van for some training games to come. We rode down through SE Portland to Milwaukie warming up and practicing paceline skills with Jeff's flat tire the only mishap.

We then dashed down 99E briefly to River Road, and pacelined as a team to Oregon City. We were oh-so-pro with the stellar Ian leGros dosing out feed hand-ups from DS's van. Ian was also a game competitor in the cat & mouse chase game that John coordinated. From Oregon City we re-grouped and headed past the Covered Wagons, chowed on a little salmon, and sped up along the Clackamas River with Ken, Greg and Jeff working a good paceline and taking longer and longer pulls in preparation for Cherry Pie. Ken and John offered valuable critique and advice on our form while maintaining a good 20 mph pace on the beautiful ride up the River.

At the Carver bridge, we briefly re-grouped, talked, drank, ate, then turned around and played the "chase Ian and Aaron" game again. I red-lined a little too much and had to slow the pace down a tad, but we had a really good ride back to Portland. In spectacular fashion, Ken dropped the hammer and simply crushed both Jeff and I to the Portland City Limit sprint sign in Sellwood by the golf course.

Egos intact, we cruised up Milwaukie, through Ladd's Addition, then up 20th to SE Pine Street, and to John's bliss we did TEAM GROUP YOGA on my front porch!

Good yoga, good people, good ride. Let's keep it up.

Greg