A 3 Mile Ride

My buddy Jason cautioned me about continuing to ride on my new back tire that now had a fatal puncture wound from my flat on Thursday while jetting down pesky Iron Point Road at 26 mph.

I hate it when he is right.

Yep, flat #3 happened yesterday. Yes, I had a spare tube. And yes, the spare tube was faulty or there was operator error - all yet to be determined by the National Transportation Safety Board. Anyway, the walk home in my socks was only 3 miles. There went my 300 mile week as yesterday was a whopping 3 miles. Impossible to make it all up over the weekend.

After being scolded by a Sacramento Bee Sportswriter for the abhorrent behavior of some of our team members donning our jersey, I desperately needed to get out and ride and demonstrate to the world that we can actually be kind, courteous and safe while riding. He said that he has seen some of our cyclists on the road without helmets and wondered if we were trying to donate our organs at the earliest date possible. Ouch.

The whole ordeal had a glorious outcome. While walking through upscale Gold River in my socks with my bike in hand, I actually wondered if anyone would stop to offer to help. A cyclist, a motorist, somebody... not likely as it was nearing good old rush hour and people had to get home in a hurry, to uh, ummm...what the heck IS the hurry? But that is for another post.

Well, someone did indeed stop. She had a handy bike rack on the back of her car, and off we went. Turns out we had met before, but only in our bike helmets, so it took a couple of minutes to figure that all out. Yes, I wear a helmet. Always. I have been known to put in on backwards, but that is all about learning and spatial orientation or something complicated like that.

There are great people in the world. Mary is one of them. So is Blair, the writer from The Bee who took the time to give me feedback about the impression our team has made on him, albeit not so positive.

Today I will carry 5 spare tubes on my 100 mile ride...just in case.

Ride On.