High and Lows from a Day with the Bike Club

Saturday was a relatively decent day for January. It was warm enough to ride, but an unexpected fog made me wonder about visibility. Luckily, it wasn't too thick and it would likely clear as it warmed up.

The route today started from old access road outside of the city limits by a local gym. There are four potential loops to choose from (17, 23, 35 or 43 miles), but the group I rode with was going to wait and see how we felt as we were riding to determine our distance.

About four miles into the ride, I got a flat (Boo!). No big deal...out with the old, in with the new and away we go. One problem. I must not have secured the tire properly, because the tube began to bulge on one side, pushed out a small portion of the tire and exposed itself. No big deal. Let out the air...push the tire into the rim...pump more air in.

As it turns out, the valve stem bent as I was latching the pump to it so it wasn't holding anymore air. Basically, I had another flat (that's Number 2 in less than 7 miles). So I go through the whole routine again.

The tube held up for the rest of the ride...thankfully we decided to only do the 23 mile route. As luck would have it, my last tube ALSO flatted just as I was about to leave. I actually got about a quarter of a mile away and had to turn around and get a ride home. Thanks Diane!


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That evening, the Evansville Bicycle Club had its annual award banquet. For the most part, it's a good time. The usual folk are there, I never win the raffle but I got some nice stats for the year. Here they are:

2009 Club Miles: 2,428
2009 Club Ranking: 11th (I had the 11th highest total)
Career Club Miles: 5,474 (since 2007)
Career Club Ranking: 90th
(I think the club has been actively taking stats since the late 1980s. The guy who has the most career miles has over 60,000 miles.)
Commuting Miles: 1,163 (I only recorded through July...probably over 2,000 if I kept track)
Centuries: 8 (the top guy had 63)

I was also voted by my peers as the Volunteer of the Year, which was a little unexpected because I won it last year. Since I can no longer win the award (apparently you can can only win twice), I have decided to quit the club to focus more time on winning awards elsewhere....j/k.

In summary:
Morning bad.
Evening good.
Time to patch tubes.