Santa Fe Century

"Craig Brossman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

If you are in this boat, don't get disappointed that you
were slower than others, take pride in the fact that this
was perhaps harder for you than many others, and you did
it. Every single one of us started somewhere, and had more
than one hard ride in our life. Just keep

peddling!

Quoted message said:

Being fast is like being rich. It means different things to
different people and in the end, it isn't what it was all
about anyway!

Quoted message said:

I wanted to say to each and everyone, don't give up,

My wife, who at 66 yo, rode 25 miles including a couple of
hard hills, worked as hard or harder than the hotshots who
sped through in 5 hours.

Almost everyone was very nice with the exception of two road
bikers who were extremely rude to my wife as she was going
down a hill with rumble strips. They yelled at her to pull
over, but the place where she was supposed to "pull over"
had about a 5-10% increase in slant from the riding area on
the shoulder, and it would have been extremely unsafe for
her to pull over into that slanted area.

They acted as if this was a race, not a ride, and, besides,
they were riding one of the short routes - if they wanted to
play big time biker, they should have been on the century,
not the 25-50 miler.

Anyway, my wife is not at a loss for words, and was able to
properly verbally discipline the young whippersnappers! They
probably won't forget that "grandmotherly" type who told
them where they could get off in no uncertain terms.

Also, the rumble strip was much gentler than those we have
in Colorado, and I soon discovered that you can cross the
strip with little or no problem, and these rude folks could
have easily passed to the left cross the strip.

But, it was a great day. So sad about the injured biker who
was getting his bike out of the of his car when the person
to the rear missed the brake of her car and hit the
accelerator, instead. He is in critical condition.

members.aol.comfoxcondorsrvtnsOpen ↗ (Colorado
rental condo)

members.aol.comdnvrfoxOpen ↗ (Family Web Page)

Denver C. Fox said:

Quoted message said:

I wanted to say to each and everyone, don't give up,

My wife, who at 66 yo, rode 25 miles including a couple of
hard hills, worked as hard or harder than the hotshots who
sped through in 5 hours.

Again, good for her.

Quoted message said:

Almost everyone was very nice with the exception of two
road bikers who were extremely rude to my wife as she
was going down a hill with rumble strips. They yelled
at her to pull over, but the place where she was
supposed to "pull over" had about a 5-10% increase in
slant from the riding area on the shoulder, and it
would have been extremely unsafe for her to pull over
into that slanted area.

They acted as if this was a race, not a ride, and,
besides, they were riding one of the short routes - if
they wanted to play big time biker, they should have been
on the century, not the 25-50 miler.

Anyway, my wife is not at a loss for words, and was able
to properly verbally discipline the young whippersnappers!
They probably won't forget that "grandmotherly" type who
told them where they could get off in no uncertain terms.

Good for her, I found everyone to be very nice and tried to
say hi to everyone I passed or passed me, except the fast
peleton, they just cruised by too quickly.

Quoted message said:

Also, the rumble strip was much gentler than those we have
in Colorado, and I soon discovered that you can cross the
strip with little or no problem, and these rude folks
could have easily passed to the left cross the strip.

Somewhere after the 50 mile turn around, the sleeper strip
becomes more like the ones we are accustomed to here in CO,
but poorly placed. Not up against the white line, closer to
the middle of the shoulder 🙁

Quoted message said:

But, it was a great day. So sad about the injured biker
who was getting his bike out of the of his car when the
person to the rear missed the brake of her car and hit the
accelerator, instead. He is in critical condition.

I didn't hear about the injured rider, I hope it works out
OK for them.

Quoted message said:

members.aol.comfoxcondorsrvtnsOpen ↗ (Colorado
rental condo)

members.aol.comdnvrfoxOpen ↗ (Family Web Page)

I kind of wish there was some sort of get-together after the
ride, we just sort of showed up, rode and left for home. You
meet a few folks on the ride, but you end either passing
them or being passed. The ones who ride at the same pace are
always a fixed distance in front of or behind you.

--
Craig Brossman, Durango Colorado (remove ".nospam" to reply)

TM said:

"Craig Brossman" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

If you are in this boat, don't get disappointed that you
were slower than others, take pride in the fact that this
was perhaps harder for you than many others, and you did
it. Every single one of us started somewhere, and had more
than one hard ride in our life. Just keep

peddling!

Being fast is like being rich. It means different things
to different people and in the end, it isn't what it was
all about anyway!

Agreed, but it may become discouraging to some when you are
slower than others. I hope it isn't.

--
Craig Brossman, Durango Colorado (remove ".nospam" to reply)

"Craig Brossman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Not a race at all, some folks were faster than others, but
everyone had a good time. My hats off to the organizers,
good snacks at the frequent rest stops, well organized,
lots of good signs for directions, a very pleasant event.

We saw riders of all sorts of abilities and ages, some
rode 50 miles on knobby tires, a couple of groups of racer
types in a peleton of 12 or so folks, some folks who
appeared to ride very infrequently.

Let me just say, my wife and I ride a lot, this time of
year we are training for the Iron Horse race here in
Durango, at elevation, almost all climbing. We are
training just to better last year's time.

I don't want to say this and appear mean spirited, we were
both very impressed with the folks we saw who appeared out-of-
shape and overweight, plodding through the miles. I don't
know how many miles they rode (there were several options
starting at 25 miles), and often they were on mtn bikes or
older road bikes. But they put on the miles with a smile,
worked through the same issues we all do on a relatively
long ride (whatever that means for you) and performed in
fine fashion. I wanted to say to each and everyone, don't
give up, this is hard on all of us, the fact that you keep
going is more impressive than anyone who flies by at 25
mph. If you are in this boat, don't get disappointed that
you were slower than others, take pride in the fact that
this was perhaps harder for you than many others, and you
did it. Every single one of us started somewhere, and had
more than one hard ride in our life. Just keep

peddling!

Quoted message said:

Oh yeah, and those guys who were 20 years my senior
and road past me like I was standing still, you I
don't like 🙂

--
Craig Brossman, Durango Colorado (remove ".nospam"
to reply)

Nice post, Craig. I just wish all bikers had the same
attitude as you and your wife. I do a lot of riding and I
find 99% of the people I encounter on the trails are great
but it's that 1% that can give fellow bikers a bad image.

"Craig Brossman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Not a race at all, some folks were faster than others, but
everyone had a good time. My hats off to the organizers,
good snacks at the frequent rest stops, well organized,
lots of good signs for directions, a very pleasant event.

We saw riders of all sorts of abilities and ages, some
rode 50 miles on knobby tires, a couple of groups of racer
types in a peleton of 12 or so folks, some folks who
appeared to ride very infrequently.

Let me just say, my wife and I ride a lot, this time of
year we are training for the Iron Horse race here in
Durango, at elevation, almost all climbing. We are
training just to better last year's time.

I don't want to say this and appear mean spirited, we were
both very impressed with the folks we saw who appeared out-of-
shape and overweight, plodding through the miles. I don't
know how many miles they rode (there were several options
starting at 25 miles), and often they were on mtn bikes or
older road bikes. But they put on the miles with a smile,
worked through the same issues we all do on a relatively
long ride (whatever that means for you) and performed in
fine fashion. I wanted to say to each and everyone, don't
give up, this is hard on all of us, the fact that you keep
going is more impressive than anyone who flies by at 25
mph. If you are in this boat, don't get disappointed that
you were slower than others, take pride in the fact that
this was perhaps harder for you than many others, and you
did it. Every single one of us started somewhere, and had
more than one hard ride in our life. Just keep

peddling!

Quoted message said:

Oh yeah, and those guys who were 20 years my senior
and road past me like I was standing still, you I
don't like 🙂

--
Craig Brossman, Durango Colorado (remove ".nospam"
to reply)

Nice post, Craig. I just wish all bikers had the same
attitude as you and your wife. I do a lot of riding and I
find 99% of the people I encounter on the trails are great
but it's that 1% that can give fellow bikers a bad image.

Beverly said:

"Craig Brossman" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

--
Craig Brossman, Durango Colorado (remove ".nospam"
to reply)

Nice post, Craig. I just wish all bikers had the same
attitude as you and your wife. I do a lot of riding and I
find 99% of the people I encounter on the trails are great
but it's that 1% that can give fellow bikers a bad image.

We are very fortunate here, biking is extremely integrated
into the town, everybody knows everybody else, and 3/4 of
the folks you know are into some form of biking. Not that
this is my motivation, but if you are a jerk on the trails
or roads, odds are someone you know saw you doing it, and
you'll hear about it later ... or you are from out of town,
but you may still hear about it at dinner in one of the
local restaurants.

Now all we have to do is keep reminding all the new comers
that this is NOT California or Texas, our rules of courtesy
may be more rigorous than they are used to 🙂

--
Craig Brossman, Durango Colorado (remove ".nospam" to reply)