I usually ride the Bloomin Metric each year with my son Elliot on our Burley Tandem but this year it was raining a bit chillier than normal and Elliot bailed. I quickly switched bikes and went to the Paramount. The 25 mile course (40K) has some climbing but nothing insane that I couldn't handle with my gearing. In fact, I rode the course on my Bianchi SSer a few years ago and it was quite fun.
Rounding Nyla Farms I had an epiphany, why not ride fixed! I told my father to go ahead and that I would catch up. I did a quick flip flop and took off after him. He only rides about 8 mph so I caught up to him pretty quickly at Southport Beach. I thought I was going to be slower but it was so smooth riding this way that I was really able to tear it up.
In fact, I ended up pedaling on ahead and then circling back to wait for my father. I also went back to look for my Brother-in-law, Will, who was riding with his daughter. After Elliot bailed, I should have brought the tandem for them to ride.
It stopped raining right before we left Sherwood Island so the roads were a bit wet and it was chilly but as the day wore it got warmer to the point where I was sweating.
At the rest stop there were some great snacks, pickles, and of course pickle shots!
I stayed with my Dad but sprinted the last mile to the end. I was passing a lot of guys on geared bikes and whether or not they noticed that I was riding singlespeed and I passed them knowing that I was a lot cooler than them because I was riding a steel, fixed gear bike that i paid a $100 and they probably shelled out $5K for their carbon fiber Pinarello.
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