Height of the Off-Season

Wired for Sound
by
Keegan O'Neill


It just kept getting better.
Today I was the Ride Leader of the "Saturday Kids' Practice"
leaving from East Moreland Grocery at Noon and Featuring two Rendezvous -River City and Old Town Pizza. John had me on one of our new two-way radios.

Practice started out okay and then got pretty rough, but then it got great. Rolling out this morning Noah, Kent and I sprinted with joyous expectation. It was scheduled to be a long day of riding with the team.


East Moreland Grocery has a great fruit selection, so we got 3,3,&3, (apples, oranges, and bananas) At EMG we also met Danni, Lori ,the Campbells.
We rolled out on Reed College Parkway to RCB where we found Santo, Luca, and Michelle.
We took the waterfront "Esplanade bike path north.
I kept the group rolling as a unit on the popular path until I came back into radio contact with John when we passed through Rose Quarter, and called for "two Columns" as we hit the Williams bike path.

Under radio Direction from the Directeur Sportif, I sent my two trusty Domestiques Luca Mallon, and Noah Noah Beggs down the road, off the front, up Williams. I was amazed to see their blistering pace light up the lane ahead. Noah set the big roll and Luca tucked in his draft.
Both of them low in their drops, elbows bent, knees in-they were flying.



I guess John needed them to come up and get cash from him to pay for the garlic, onions, olive and mushrooms pizza made by Old Town Pizza where Earl Cooper was waiting in his Cadilac to put his kids on bikes. Olivia and Edward were game for a bike ride.

We put them on tandems powered by Kent Ross, and Tim Bergmann. Olivia with Tim, and Edward with Kent.

In the beginning we had the wrong kid on the wrong bike.

We switched them and it made all the difference. Still, things seemed to go wrong every few minutes.
Kent rode a tandem with Olivia and Tim Bergman Captained her brother Edward.

They seemed to be having the time of their lives. They seemed so happy and that feeling is contagious. We delivered the kids back safely in the care of their father at the Interstate Bowling Alley.



Next to a leisurely walk I enjoy a spin on my tandem bicycle. It is splendid to feel the wind blowing in my face and the springy motion of my iron steed. The rapid rush through the air gives me a delicious sense of strength and buoyancy, and the exercise makes my pulse dance and my heart sing. ~ Helen Keller deaf and blind political activist

After a veritable tour of the Overlook Bluff, we rode with the Bergmans back to their car out front of Old Town.

From Old Town on Sumner Street we rode super fast down N. Vancouver to the Mallons' car parked at RCB. We took a left on Tillamook and a right on KLK!

"Where are we going?!" Michelle Mallon yelled out.

Going down MLK boulevard we rode in the right order to go fast enough to stay safe but not too fast and drop anyone. Cindy and Michelle led the way.

I was so impressed with how fast Willie, Cindy, Michelle and Santo could ride.
I did not think they could go that fast, especially for that long, and I don't think they did either.

After they made it back they were thrilled by that last high speed adventure.
We said our good byes and I rode the Cambells back to Eastmoreland Grocers. We worked a three up paceline back south fast.
At the end of the day it was a great ride. We showed how resilient we were and many of us rode faster than we ever had before. Rides like this are the reason we were the number one team in the state last season for most of the year.

We are making people fast.

Get a bicycle. You will certainly not regret it, if you live.
-Mark Twain Taming the Bicycle. 1884