Shawn "Intrepid Explorer" Bunnin (trust me, he's earned this one well this winter) and I went out for a little adventure today, but part of the way in I began to wonder if it was true adventure, or simply a ploy on Shawn's part to lure me back to the snowy single track where I left him in the dust last weekend to re-assert his Alpha-ness on the 'cross bike... he did have brand new high traction tires... hmmm.
We rode gravel, hills, iced over streams, stayed out of the way of cows, and some great but raw single track. We even elected to skip the coffee stop to get home sooner to play with that other toy, the petrol burning one. Great plan, other than my stomach is conditioned to the coffee stop, and I had to cram back a little food quickly in the absence of one of those day old muffins to avoid running myself down to empty.
In my cycling life I've had two great compliments that I'll accept/cling to up 'til today:
- "nice pull man" - Gord Fraser after he pulled through on a Shootout in Tucson years ago on his down tube shifter 1980's Peugeot (for the record, it was down hill, I basically went maximal, yet tried to look composed even as I slid to the left to catch my breath and let the pace line continue)
- "you really love riding bikes" - Trev Williams (yes indeed!)
Today I earned a third:
- "that chain is really shiny" - Shawn Bunnin, man of incomparable bike cleanliness standards (I previously hadn't thought it possible to clean a chain to a standard that Shawn notices how gleaming it is, especially enough to generate verbal acknowledgement)
Awesome day, nice weather out. The Big Hill to Cochrane connector won't be rideable for too many more weeks if these temperatures hold.
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