I planned all week to make the Brands ride on Saturday morning. The forecast predicted great weather and I was looking forward to a good ride with the group. The usual Brands ride is about 38 miles, and I wanted at least 50. So I headed out at 6:00 AM to do a couple of laps on the Jones Beach bike path, then stopped over at Brands a little before 7:00 AM. I was great to see everyone again, Jamie, Mike, Bob, Ed, Harvey, Todd, and a couple of other guys whose faces were familiar but not sure of the names.
A big group of about 20 or so, we started off at an easy pace to everyone could get warmed up. Ed attacked on Central Ave. and so the pace picked up on Round Swamp Rd. A few other guys taking off the front. I bridged then led up to the LIE service road. I turned around and it was just me and two other guys. We took a quick straw poll and we decided to keep going on our own. We kept a strong pace out on the LIE srevice road. One rider dropped off and headed for home, leaving just Dan and myself to finish up back at Round Swamp.
Met a group of 5 riders from our original peloton and we did one more repeat of the first hill on the LIE. Pick up some more remnants of the original group, then we all headed back to Brands. Nice, steady pace!
After our post-ride chat at Brands, I took a spin over to Seaman's Neck Park to catch the first half of my daughter's soccer game (they won, 6-0!!!). A total of 61 miles on the day.
Back home, I had some lunch and had a long session of bike maintenance:
- full bike wash
- new chain
- new cassette
- new brake pads
- mount tire on my new Easton Circuit rear wheel (replacing the one I broke on the Triangle ride)
- mount the trainer tire back on the spare wheel I had been using while waiting for my new wheel
A few photos:
My dented rim, tire bead folded in and braking surface deformed.
New brake pads
New chain and cassette
New Easton Circuit rear wheel
Busy tomorrow, so just a short ride planned.
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