The Ride in the Rain

October 1, 2014

It had rained early this morning and I thought I would just go see if anyone showed up for the ride today out of the Estero TREK store.  When I got there...no one.  It was just a minute or two before others started to show up.  I didn't think it was a good idea to ride but the fact that others showed up got the best of me and off we went.

There were five us today.   The roads were wet and rooster tails were alive and well.  I was covered in grit from the road...my arms, my legs....and the bike too.   Ugh....thank goodness I was getting the bike serviced by John the pro mechanic on Thursday.  He appeared on this ride so I just gave him the messy bike at the end of the ride for him to fix the back break and do some other maintenance on it.

We were getting to the Speed Zone which is Vanderbuilt Road.  All of a sudden the skies opened up and we were drenched.  It was coming down hard and the group stopped to assess whether we should turn back.  Uri looked towards the beach and said that the sun and blue skies were there and since we were heading that way we should continue the route and finish the ride.  It poured so hard for 10 minutes that even road grit was getting into my eyes from it being washed from my face.  I was soaked. 

It continued to rain but when we crossed Rt 41 and turned onto Vanderbuilt Drive the rains stopped and the sun quickly dried the grit to my face.  I was just glad the rain had stopped.

We were almost back to the finish when we heard a tire blow out.  It was Uri's bike this time.  It the sixth flat he has had in so many weeks.  John checked the wheel to make sure it was "trued" while Uri changed the flat.  John ended up taking Uri's bike along with mine at the end of the ride to find out what was causing so many flats.

Let's just say I was glad to be finished and vowed never to ride when the roads were already wet or there was more than 50% chance of rain.