Finally some season appropriate weather. It was Pooh's Blustery Day. More of the same tomorrow.
Big A was driving his son to the high school for PSATs and got to wish me luck when we came across each other.
I thought I was a few minutes late, but when I got to the LIE there was another rider still waiting for the group as well. They actually rolled by some 5 minutes late. It was an unusually small group, only 6, instead of the usual 20-30 that typically show up by this time. I guess they started late because they were waiting to see whether any more riders would show up at the triangle. I recognized a couple of strong guys from previous rides, including Tuck. I could tell it wasn't going to be easy.
On the way out we were just flying, thanks to a strong tail wind. Of course I knew the way back was going to suck.
By the time we reached the wall we had picked up a few more, doubled the size of the group and did the usual Woodbury/108/Turkey route. By the time we were back on the second pass of 108 it was down to about 6 of us again. I got dropped the first time on the last uphill section of Stillwell. I caught them back at the end, thanks to some cross traffic that held them up for me. In Syosset we caught a green light and didn't even slow down to smell the Stók.
Onto Muttontown, Brookville, Wolver Hollow and left at Chicken Valley. That's where I got dropped again, this time for good. Too much headwind to fight off on my own. Distance by then was about 34 miles and my average by that point had climbed to 19.5. Not too bad. From that point I just took it easy to save myself for tomorrow and enjoyed the fall colors for the rest of the ride.
Good Luck to Big A tomorrow with the Triple Crown.
It should be a decent sized group of us meeting in CSH. Stitches is back and will be joining us. I just hope he goes easy on me.
Beast
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