Industry Figure Tom Chappell

My old friend Larry laughed when I used this phrase to describe today’s ride, but that’s how I pictured it: no heat, no ghosts, no celebrities, living or dead.

And that’s how it turned out, so there’s not really too much to discuss, apart from how very badly Ron beat me.

Both of us turned in our best times of the season, so we both did quite well, by our lights, and we both enjoyed the heck out of the ride — a beautiful fall day, a lovely route (the same route as for the horrible hot ride), and not too many cars. We were both doing well on the hills, and by mile 28 on Agoura Road we were taking turns catching and passing each other, just for the hell of it.

And then, somewhere around mile 30, Ron realized that we were getting close to our half-time rest stop, and decided to go for it. He passed me on a hill, and disappeared into the distance.

After the rest stop (water, restrooms), I never seemed to be able to get it together, vis-a-vis crushing Ron. He was amusing himself by arriving at a waypoint, taking a picture of the empty waypoint, and then taking it again when I (finally) arrived. Let the photo timestamps tell their tale of woe! And he never lost his endurance, either; he just crushed me for the whole last half of the ride.

We didn’t bother taking any breaks, other than for water and restrooms, unless you count Ron waiting for me to catch up and grinning, while taking my photo.

By the time we were done, he had finished 11 minutes and 31 seconds faster than I had, saddle time:

Ride:
 total ascent:   1,574 feet
     distance:    50.9 miles

Ron:
  saddle time: 3:38:59     (not counting breaks)
average speed:    13.9 mph (not counting breaks)

Tom:
  saddle time: 3:50:30     (not counting breaks)
average speed:    13.2 mph (not counting breaks)

“Come on, we’ll rest on the downhills!”