To B or Not to B

Bunker Hill Road, near Kendall Park 

6 November 2016

I don't recover from rides as fast as my biking buddies do. When I head out to Cranbury on a Sunday morning after a hilly Saturday ride, I don't expect to be at my best. Once in a while I stray, but for the most part, I choose a leader who I know will keep an honest B pace.

Last night's extra hour of sleep left me feeling more rested than usual, so when I arrived in Cranbury to find myself amid a mob of solid B+ riders, I was only a little nervous. Winter Larry was leading, and there were two other solid B people in the mix besides.

"This ride's gonna split," I told Larry. He agreed. I could easily see Peter F taking the fastboys and leaving the rest of us in peace.

We were facing a steady 15 mph wind, with gusts in the mid-20s, out of the northwest. Larry decided to head towards the Sourland Mountain, into the wind. Sourlands? I grabbed my camera.

I dropped into the small ring, a rare event for me and Kermit out in the flatlands.

After we got through the open fields north of Plainsboro and crossed 522 on the edge of Dayton, the group got spread out. When we collected ourselves again at Route 1 and crossed the highway, I noticed that two of the B riders (one in an unmissable pink jacket with a pink and black bike to match, the other in orange) were missing. I called out to Larry.

"They turned back," he said.

So did Peter, who had a prior commitment.

It's bad enough to be intimidated by the crowd in the parking lot. It's worse to have to drop off and go home alone on a ride whose advertised pace is one you can do in your sleep. At least they'd have a tailwind.

When we crossed Route 27 in Kendall Park, I had to stop to take a picture. I waited for everyone to pass down the hill, out of the frame.

I was half hoping that, despite Larry's instructions for everyone to wait at the canal, the entire group would be gone and I could proceed on my own at my own speed. I was half hammering, too, so that I could catch up before they'd have to wait too long. I almost caught Larry, so I didn't pull in too much after he did.

We continued to spread and scrunch all the way through Harlingen to Dutchtown. When we reached Route 601, Larry called out "free zone" and let the hammerheads hammer. We rode next to each other, talking about how best to resolve the pace problem, until I waved him on ahead so that I could get a picture of Hidden Spring Lavender:

Again I caught up as he was pulling into where everyone else was waiting. We stayed together through Skillmman Park, cleaned up and paved, no longer the creepy, abandoned, dilapidated site of a state home for epileptic boys. 

Then we spread out again.  This time the group didn't wait at the light at Opossum and 518. There were four of us caught at the red as the rest took off towards 206, where we were planning to stop at a bagel place in a strip mall.

This gave me and Larry more time to wonder why the B+ boys weren't over in Etra, where erstwhile Hill Slug, Marc-o, has been leading B+ rides for a month. Larry was feeling despondent. Why should he lead any more B rides this winter?

"This is very August," I said. It's late in the year now, but this sort of problem usually rears its head in the middle of the summer.

The light turned green. The fastboys were out of sight.

"I'd Sprague 'em," I said. "I'd go on to Main Street in Kingston."

Larry looked torn. "I can't. I told someone where we'd be stopping."

"I'd Sprague all of 'em."  Winter Larry is too much of a gentleman for that.

After the break, our route was more with the wind than into it.  Again we spread out, and, if not for a series of well-timed traffic lights on Plainsboro Road, we'd never have regrouped, this time into two bunches, the fastboys ahead and the tired ones back with me and Larry. 

I know I'll eventually age out of the B category, but I'm not there yet. I can even pull a B+ once in a while, if it's flat, I've slept, am caffeinated, and my legs are fresh. But I don't come out to Cranbury on Sundays looking to hammer. I hope we can resolve this, maybe by having the B and B+ rides leave from the same place at the same time so that the riders can sort themselves out. I hope the two who left today come back.