Two Wheel Blogs

Countdown to Memorial Day Biathalon: 1 week

Route: Mueller Road
Miles: Around 25
Time: 1:29
Pace: 18.7

A week from now, I will be recovering from my first road biathalon. But tonight, I rode Mueller with Steve O'Neal and James Alferman ... half the way.

We set out just before 6:00 p.m., with James taking the lead. He kept our pace above 20 mph for a long stretch before Steve took over. "If you two keeps taking pulls like that," I said, "we'll be home in no time." We turned into the wind onto Orchard Farm road, but still managed to keep our pace in the upper teens.

We kept our pace up as we headed down Weber Lake Road toward the left turn onto Portage. As I moved up to take over my turn in the lead, we heard the familiar sound of air leaving a tire. It was James's rear tire. Two weeks ago, the last time we did the Mueller ride together, James flatted three times. He'd gotten new tires since then, so it was a surprise for him to flat. We waited while he changed his tube. But as soon as he got air in it, he said "Uh oh." He spotted a bulge on the side of his tire, and that spelled one thing: another flat was in his immediate future.

As much as we hated to leave him behind, Steve and I rode on. When we turned left onto Portage, we expected the wind to hit us in the face. But instead, we found outselves riding a tailwind that pushed out pace up to 23 mph. "That's the fastest we've ever clicked off Portage," Steve said as we came to its end. Of course, the next left turn changed all that, and our 23 quickly turned into 16 mph. It was like that the rest of the way back, stretches of low 20s followed by stretches of mid-teens. Steve, always a workhorse, pulled us through the hard stretches, while I spelled him on the easy ones.

It was too bad we lost James, a strong rider, at the halfway mark. The wind was in our favor or neutral for most of the ride. If we'd had him with us for the hard stretches, we could have hit a good average speed. I don't know that we could have cracked 20 mph. Maybe. If everyone's back in two weeks, we can try again -- provided James doesn't flat. Until then, it's bi time.