Synopsis: Words escape me. It was a long ride. Had a great time with great people through great geography and towns. A rider was concerned that I'd take a photo of them barfing (I wouldn't). I'm a little beat up but recovering and training to go again. A nice picture of my bike is here.
Slightly Longer: We started early - and I was off the back much more quickly than usual. The sharp uphill made for a quick separation. Rode some alone, then with Peg and Leslie, and then ran across Jeff. Hadn't managed to ride with Jeff since July 2003. We had a nice chat up and over the top of Snoqualmie pass. For some reason, I fell faster than Jeff down the other side; then ran across Gary, a fellow Tri-Citian and one of the three Randonneurs from that part of the world. He was three tubes down at that point. Stopped to chat and offer what assistance I might. The eastward shoulder of I-90 continued to be my personal bike-reunion lane - found Naryan and we rode on into Cle Elum together.
Had a nice stop (grabbed a sandwich and ate a fair amount of it; more water) and headed on towards Blewett pass with Naryan. An amazing day for cycling - third ride in a row this way. We hit an uphill (the wind was amazingly neutral today) and wandered up. Traffic wasn't particularly an issue. A good number of cyclists on were on the road. I enjoyed the climb. Up at the top of Blewett was a water stop and a few other randos. I didn't spend a lot of time there - added some water to the mix and headed down, as quickly as gravity would go. No issues. More sun. Good scenery.
Here are some pictures:
Some more pictures from the event from another rider are here.
Just looked it up - beat my 2004 time on a near identical course by 2 minutes. Remarkably and bizarrely close to the same time. Weird enough.
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