Oregon and Back Again

The Sullivan family reunion out in Oregon was great fun last week, and a great opportunity to meet parts of the family that I hadn't met before. While I was out in Oregon I drove into Portland with my wife to visit River City Bicycles and I was stunned. I've never seen so many cyclists on the road in a major city before, and I've never seen a city laid out in such a manner that was so friendly to cyclists. I swear that in parts of the city on the Saturday afternoon their were more people on bikes than cars on the road.

River City itself was a veritable cycling Mecca. Two huge floors full of all manner of bikes, free Espresso, and more people in the shop than you could shake a stick at. Beyond the shop staff they had a gaggle of women at a central checkout handling all the people that had just come in to pickup some random piece of gear. It was truly impressive.

Needless to say I haven't had much time on my bike lately, but I still went to Wompatuck this evening. Luckily for me after I was dropped the third time by the field a group of six other riders fell off with me. For the next nine laps we hung together in a ragged paceline that had me at the very edge of my current abilities. I think if we had been able to keep a clean paceline going I may have been able to help more but it was a pretty sloppy affair with people pushing after they peeled off or peeling of crazy wide. When the field finally caught back up to us on the tenth lap together I fell off and spent the last 5 laps talking with Dave who had been helping to organize our group into a functional paceline. On the bell lap he led me out and let me sprint for the finish for practice, which was fun and nice since my wife Michelle had come out to see what I was spending my Wednesday nights on.

I've been continually impressed with the cyclists I've encountered at Wompatuck, they've all been very helpful and supportive. They've gone out of their way to share knowledge with me, and help me progress so I can hang on just that little bit longer. I feel pretty good right now, even though I'm exhausted and a little sore. I can't wait for this time next year!