Tour de Lake Report

xc62701

Well-Known Member
The Tour de Lake Hopatcong was today. I was a little iffy about going since I just got this wonderful head cold but I went and it was the right decision. It was for a good cause - the Mt. Arlington FOP and the Police Unity Tour. Well in traditional fashion it rained of course... Not just part of the time...the whole time. But the temps were warm so it wasn't that bad. Normally the event starts out pretty mild with the group starting out slow so we can chat and get to know some of the riders. It didn't. We were hammering from the get go. I actually got to the front a few times to try and chill out the pace but it didn't last long. A bunch of the Colavita crew showed up and were pushing pretty hard.

The first weird event happened when we rounded a corner and one of the Colavita juniors got hit by a squirrel - yes that's right. The squirrel ran out and hit his back wheel. It got caught by a spoke and was flung 10-12 feet in the air. It kinda surfed it's way down and slid on the road spread eagle and then ran off uninjured or jacked on adrenaline...lol.

Later in the ride after flying down Glenn Mountain Road very cautiously(It's easy to go 40+ on this slick road so we were all cautious) I got the honor of playing tag with a utility truck. I was with one other rider in front of me and a utility truck was coming in the same direction and cut in front of us to make a right turn. He almost got directly hit and now the truck was in my line. I had to lock my back brake to stop from hitting the truck. The back wheel then slid left on the slick road where I thought I would fall for sure but the wheel of the truck hit my wheel and corrected me and I kept riding screaming at the truck driver. That was pretty lucky for sure. I got some energy from almost being run over. I kept with the lead group for a while - at least until the bottom of the 3 mile hill and then I got dropped which was ok. I haven't hung on that far in the 2 previous tours...

The third freaky instance was as I was climbing the Weldon hill I was standing and trying to ignore the pain when I see a tree just fall next to me. Kinda cool and spooky at the same time.

All in all it was fun and I felt ok although having a bit of a head cold. On a VERY slick course I was a minute or so faster and I think I ended up 9th or 10th of 25? Something like that. It was a good time and although there were a few reports of riders sliding out and going down there were no serious injuries. It was fun...now to rest up for Ringwood tomorrow.
 

Cyclopath

Shop Owner / Employee
Shop Keep
Congrats on your finish!

Jeez, Ryan.
By that report, sleeping was certainly the safer/more sane option.
It almost makes 5 hours of reading a late 1800's quasi-medical journal filled book to a ten year old seem like fun. Ah, no, it doesn't.

But our puppet of Elizabeth Blackwell... it rocks.
It only took an additional 4 hours tonight.
(I damn well better get an A)
:getsome:
 

dualfisted

Member
cool

Wow! Everything in there sounds like a blast. 'Cept the getting run down by a truck part, and since it didn't happen, it just makes for a great cycling "yarn". Makes me want a road bike even more, couldn't hang on my '74 Schwinn Varsity fixxie on any of that. Sounds like a good day.
 
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