STOLEN BIKE.... THEN BLACK DIAMOND MINES

Our Sunday coffee ride started out in a bad way.. our friend's bike was stolen from in front of the bike shop as he walked in to sign the riding waiver. I feel really bad for him he just put on a new set of wheels. It could have been our bikes there was 4 bikes outside at the time. That would have been devastating to us, we have really grown to love our new bikes and our new hobby. So after the bike was stolen we all broke off and scoured the area along with the police, no luck. His last words as he left the shop was "I'm going home and bury myself in some food"
After we all gave up looking we took off for a ride to Black Diamond Mines. There were 4 of us. Me Mike and two club guys .. both fast and one is a cat3 racer from New Jersey. I hung tuff with them for the first 40 minutes on the flat stuff but when we got into the rolling hills we lost touch with them and then got lost, because Mike has only been to the mines once.. but we made it. We hope they didn't go looking for us, because we didn't see them at the mines. oops. Once we started the climb Mike was great he talked me up the hill the whole way... probably talked too much because it makes me mad that he has enuff breath to talk at my pace and I'm breathing to hard to talk .. damn him. he weighs 80 lbs more than me and still can out climb me. Now I have to tell on Mike like he told on me the other day. I felt like I was going to die right at the end of the climb, so I grabbed a tree and stayed clipped in my pedals, this caught Mike off guard cuz he was following me too close, so he stopped and couldn't clip out and fell over and rolled on his back with the bike still clipped to his feet. He was on his back and the bike up in the air like a turtle .. why couldn't I get my phone out for a picture before he popped up. Good thing he is amazing or he coulda got hurt. Well once we got to the top I felt really good about myself, I only stopped twice and didn't walk at all. I can't wait to do it again.. no stopping next time. I'm going to learn to climb if it kills me. I just mapped out the climb to Black Diamond Mines on ridewithgps.com. The numbers don't seem as impressive as it felt lol. 2.2 miles and 523 feet elevation gain. The ride back to the store was a little struggle for me, I think I burned myself out up the hill and trying to keep up with the fast guys at the beginning of the ride. Even though I was struggling and hurting on the way home I pushed through it, pain is temporary, well that's what coach Wayne says, and I was happy Mike stopped at Starbucks and we got a peppermint mocha thing, I have been wanting to do that since I started riding with the club. What a great weekend. 2 back to back 30 mile beautiful rides. I'm going to take Monday and Tuesday off let it rain and then hit the road. I'm looking forward to our day after Christmas ride, maybe Santa will bring me a new toy for my blue. hint hint