Cup and Cone Tour

I rode in a very cool organized ride this past weekend, the Cup and Cone Tour, which benefited MS. We started off from my friend Nasrin’s house, then met up with the whole group at the ride start about three miles away. I would say there were around 200 riders or so.

As we started off, the pace was pretty fast, and I wasn’t all that interested in busting it for 67 miles, so me and another friend, Denise, let the front group go and settled on leading the second group. As it turns out, this was a wise decision. As we were riding along at about 22 mph, up ahead we saw some bodies go vertical in the front group, and several bikes went flying. When we reached them, two guys were sprawled out on the pavement, bleeding from various places. Fortunately, they seemed to be OK and did not need an ambulance.

I think the group was way too large to be going that fast, probably around 26 mph, and two guys touched wheels. It was certainly scary, as you realize how quickly things can change for the worse in a group situation.

Anyway, we gathered up everyone we knew and decided to form our own pack. We pretty much took control of the front wherever we happened to end up, but for the most part, it was just a group of Growling Geckos. I haven’t mentioned it here, but several friends and I have formed a sort of team, as we are all doing Timberman in three weeks. We thought it would be cool to be able to recognize each other out on the course, and to generally show our asses whenever possible. Thus, we drummed up a few sponsors and got some jerseys made up. We train a lot together anyway, as several us are also doing Ironman Florida.

Anwyay, the Geckos stuck together for the most part for the rest of our ride. I think a lot of people probably thought we were actually a real team, as we averaged 20 mph for what turned out to be a pretty tough ride.

At the halfway point, the Cup and Cone part of the ride started in earnest. They had two flavors, banana ice cream and strawberry sorbet. Two scoops of banana and one scoop of Strawberry for me, along with a Fig Newton and a refill of Gatorade, and before I knew it we were headed back on the return loop.

Probably the coolest thing about the ride, outside of the free ice cream, was a little move that worked out pretty well for me along a straight stretch. The Geckos got split up, and I was leading the second group. There was a long flat stretch, and a Porsche SUV started passing a long bunch of riders in the middle of the road. I quickly jumped on the back of him, as did my fellow Geckos in tow, and we motor paced right past about 50 riders. It was awesome! We were able to catch the group ahead of us pretty easily, where without that little boost we might never have caught up to them. Sweet!

After we got back to where the ride started/finished, we got a free cup of Goodberry’s, which is the best frozen custard you’ve never had. Surprisingly, the three miles back to Nasrin’s house was much easier after a cup of vanilla. All in all, 73 miles at 20 mph, four scoops of ice cream, and free ride from a Porsche. Not bad for Saturday morning.