Horseshoe Loop

This morning, Mark had a plan for the Paceline ride that included some roads that I had not yet been on. Typically, there are two ways that we leave from the shop on saturday mornings. We either head down shallowford, cross the river and head into Yadkin County, or we head out grapevine, cross the river and head into Yadkin County. Today we hit the fast descent of Grapevine, and made our way towards East Bend.

Curtis got a new bike, mine on the left, his on the right. The shadows are of Curtis and me...

Once we got to East Bend, we ended up on some roads that I had never been on. We nearly made it to Surry County (which would have had us crossing the river yet again, just further upstream), and did what I've heard some call the, "Horseshoe Loop." A nice long downhill almost makes you fel as if you are going to head down to the river. Everyone that is a cyclist knows what it means to go down...you always have to climb afterwards. The climb out of the valley was shorter, but significantly steeper. Curtis, Cliff, Martin and myself all put a little gap on the group working hard up the climb and for the remainder of the loop.


Cliff and I


After we completed the loop we started to make our way back towards Forsyth County and the shop. Rolling up and down some short little hills got us back towards Flint Hill. On one of these rollers, we were just starting to head back up when a rider in front of me noticed he had lost some pressure in his tire. I was just starting to stand up to go hard up the hill when he stopped. It wasn't really either of our faults, but I ran right into the back of him before I could scrub much speed. No damage was done to either of us or either of our bikes, but it did make for an awkward pause in the middle of the hill. I helped him get it back up and running and we caught back up to the group at the stop sign.


Regrouping just after, "the incident."

After Flint Hill, we descended one of my favorite climbs; Taylor Road. We crossed over the river and back into Forsyth County and started the long climb up Grapevine (2.4 miles). Again, Curtis, Cliff, and myself took off on the climb. We each took turns pulling until we got near the top. I pulled up the last steep section, then when I pulled off, I couldn't grab Cliff's wheel...pooh! So for the remainder of the climb, I was by myself with a carrot dangling only maybe 30-40 meters ahead. The last part of the ride was the typical hammerfest from Lewisville square back to the shop. On the last climb up, I took off of the front, but Curtis caught and passed me just at the pinnacle of the climb. Man alive, Curtis is getting stronger and stronger at a seemingly exponential pace!