OK, I finally made a night ride last night. Nobody went along just me. I didn't really even try to find a partner, I usually like to go by myself the first time of the year. Kinda shake things down in a sense. Plus I went to Beatty Park and your never to far from the parking lot if things don't workout the first time.
Guess what! I had problems! I didn't make it a half a lap when boom the lights went out. So I turned my handlebar light down to low so I could make it back to the parking lot and then I waited. I waited for a weird experience!
Here's how my ride went. I get there and I am getting my stuff together, right beside me another guy is doing the same. I speak to him and he's seems nice. I don't ask him to ride or anything, we have never met before anyway. I just make casual conversation. Plus he's about ready to go and I am not. He takes off and I wonder if I will catch him.
I may be 46 years old but I can still crank out a pretty decent pace. It's not very often I get caught and I seem to catch a lot of people so I know where I stand in the local food chain. Believe me, I seem to ride with several people who I know when I get out of the truck I am in over my head. I just hang on and deal with it. I have been dropped before and I have blown up just trying to stay where I had no business being to begin with.
Back to my ride! The dude leaves and I get ready and head out. I catch him within in the first mile. My first thought was "hell he looked faster than that". Well now the games begin! He takes off, I figure good I have someone to ride with. I try to say hi but he never responds. We are now rolling along at a clip I know I can maintain for a couple of laps if need be. Even though he seems to not be interested in talking.
I also give thought to the fact that he might not be able to talk at this speed. He might be going so hard he can't. I soon get my answer, he pulls over and doesn't say a thing he just lets me go by. Again I try to talk to him with no response. Oh well, I am now on my own. So I think, next thing I know he's dead on my wheel! Like so close and not talking that I wonder if I made him mad.
Now I figure if he doesn't want to talk and I some how made him mad by catching him I might as well push it and see what he's got! Race is on! For a few anyway, I leave him sitting and I get on with my stroll through the woods. I get near the end of the black diamond section and damn if he ain't trying to catch up! I can see him through the woods and he's getting closer. I stand on it again and it's over.
I am way out in front of him and enjoying my ride when all of a sudden my lights go out. I lost my head lamp, I still have my handlebar light but no head lamp. It's hard to go fast when you don't have a head lamp to shine around the corners and such. I slow down and then I decide to stop and wait on the guy, that's right I need a new friend!
Well he catches me and does ask if I am alright. Of course I am and then I ask if he minds I follow him since I only have the one light. He says sure, and then proceeds to try and drop me for the next several miles! I am riding with one weak ass handlebar light and trying to look ahead through him with his light and now he decides to hammer it!
I am like what the hell! But I be damn if he's gonna drop me! So I stay on his back wheel so close if he even so much as makes a bobble I am gonna run over him! He try's to drop me but it ain't happening. We finally come out of the woods right at the one road section and then he just pulls over and stops. I stop to and say good ride and he tells me I don't need his light to go ahead. I thought he was kinda joking or something so I just chuckle and am waiting for him to go again when he turns and says.
"NO" I meant it! He then goes up the road and doesn't say a word. I am standing there in the middle of the road thinking what the hell! I was nice to him, I tried several times to talk to him. I don't know what I did wrong. I guess he just didn't want to ride with anyone! I turned and took my weak ass light and went back in the woods. Lap 2 I did all by myself, I never passed or saw anyone else......
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