Welcome to Fruita, enjoy your stay!
Last night I went to my first Red Rock Riders ride of the season. These are the infamous "rides" commonly referred to as the Tuesday night races, often described as hammerfests, sufferfests, or any number of similarly attractive-sounding descriptions. Last night's ride was even more brutal than normal, with temperatures above 100 degrees. I wanted to hammer, and I was ready for anything the boys would throw at me. But as I would find out, I should've been more worried about what the local Fruitans would throw at us, and less worried about the other riders.
Our "warmup" was short and we started to pick up the pace a bit. We were hauling down a hill out on 23 Rd when a pickup pulled around the entire pack, then decided to throw on his brakes right in front of us, conveniently in the middle of a bunch of gravel. Welcome to Fruita folks, watch out for the pickups. We regrouped and continued on the ride, undisturbed for a mile or two. Then we came upon a lady on one horse, and leading another. We were getting deeper into Fruita at this point, and no one thought much of seeing a couple of horses and a rider on the side of the road. But then the horse spooked. It took off chasing the pack down the road, quickly overtook us, and continued down the road at full speed. Luckily the lady handled it very well, and as we slowed down to a near crawl to pass them a second time, we gave her back a few items that she had lost during the incident. During the excitement, the pack had split in two, and we waited for the second half to catch back up. As soon as it did, I flatted. Trevor waited for me, and we tried to get back to the pack by cutting off a few miles, but the top pack had split up.
It wasn't quite the ride I was hoping for, but there wasn't much anyone could do. But when in Fruita, please don't do as the Fruitans do... running cyclists off the road isn't a sport. We're well aware that your pickup truck could beat up our road bikes, proving it really isn't necessary. Not that I don't like Fruita... it's a cool town, with some of the best mountain biking I've ever found. All I'm saying is that you might want to watch out for the pickups
Our "warmup" was short and we started to pick up the pace a bit. We were hauling down a hill out on 23 Rd when a pickup pulled around the entire pack, then decided to throw on his brakes right in front of us, conveniently in the middle of a bunch of gravel. Welcome to Fruita folks, watch out for the pickups. We regrouped and continued on the ride, undisturbed for a mile or two. Then we came upon a lady on one horse, and leading another. We were getting deeper into Fruita at this point, and no one thought much of seeing a couple of horses and a rider on the side of the road. But then the horse spooked. It took off chasing the pack down the road, quickly overtook us, and continued down the road at full speed. Luckily the lady handled it very well, and as we slowed down to a near crawl to pass them a second time, we gave her back a few items that she had lost during the incident. During the excitement, the pack had split in two, and we waited for the second half to catch back up. As soon as it did, I flatted. Trevor waited for me, and we tried to get back to the pack by cutting off a few miles, but the top pack had split up.
It wasn't quite the ride I was hoping for, but there wasn't much anyone could do. But when in Fruita, please don't do as the Fruitans do... running cyclists off the road isn't a sport. We're well aware that your pickup truck could beat up our road bikes, proving it really isn't necessary. Not that I don't like Fruita... it's a cool town, with some of the best mountain biking I've ever found. All I'm saying is that you might want to watch out for the pickups
posted by Netana Hotimsky at 10:14 AM
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