Last week was a light training week, but I did get to go along for a couple first rides with friends and family. The first was my first time riding with Chris (pictured in the rafting trip post below). He recently picked up a 2006 Trek Madone road bike. I headed to Maryland Friday morning and Chris picked me up at BWI. My mountain bike was still there from when it didn't make it to the Greenbrier Race in April. Chris and I blasted a 20 mile road ride on some country roads West of my old home town. It was good fun even though my chain broke about halfway through. It was a catastrophic break, snapping right as I was loaded up my pedals at the beginning of a short climb. I managed to stay on the bike, but it got me thinking. If my bike had made to MD in time for the race and my chain broke at the very best it would have cost me the race, but more likely I would have had a horrible crash on the super technical course. Maybe there was a reason it didn't make it??
The second ride was with my younger, 14 year old brother John. My other younger brother Andrew and I built him up an old Gary Fisher Big Sur that was Andrew's first bike. I donated a fork, pedals, rear tire, a shifter, and cables. We took him up to the Frederick County Watershed and rode a 5 mile loop on some pretty technical trails for his first mountain bike ride ever. They were good trails for a first ride, but John did amazing. He took his time on the technical sections and didn't crash once, even clearing an uphill rock garden. Andrew on the other hand was the victim of bad luck. He got hung up on an innocuous log across the trail and endoed hitting his shoulder on a hockey puck size rock. We found out later he separated the AC joint in his shoulder and will be out for a couple months. It was the only rock on the trail and completely random that he hit it. The worst part is he just got a brand new mountain bike sitting in his garage begging to be ridden. Argh!!! I got to give him credit, he's got a positive attitude and is taking it in stride, much better than I would have.
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