It was not the best of days, 50 degrees, cloudy, windy with a threat of rain. Three CR listmembers came to support of fellow CR Listmember, A ngel Garcia who is on the planning committee for this annual fundraiser for Metheny School and Hospital. The vintage bike ride was a 32 miler th at rode through fantastic scenic horse country of western New Jersey.
A few non CR listmembers brought some vintage rides and were interested to learn about our little group. Tom Adams on his Ephgrave, Ray Homis ki rode a Bob Jackson, Mike Schmidt on a Masi 3V, and Angel Garcia on a Dav e Moulton made the best of the chilly weather in this pre-cirque tune up ri de. During the early part of the ride, Ray flatted his front tire so the CR guys waited til Ray was ready to roll again. The rest of the v intage ride group took off. Since this was Angel's turf, we decided t o change the ride a little bit once Ray was ready to go. (Hint: pictu re the AARP Cycling team with 3 guys over 50 in mid April riding 52/42 rings with 13-21 freewheels facing a few good climbs) Since no one objected, we saw some beautiful estates and horses as we meandered thro ugh the New Jersey countryside. The day's conversation pretty much ce ntered on the upcoming trip to cirque, who was going to win the Confente, A ngel's upcoming move to Verona Italy and if we had enough bail money for Pe rgolizzi. Eventually, we rejoined the route and Angel informed us tha t we ducked only one of three climbs.
The last climb never seemed to want to end but eventually it did and we made it back to Peapack-Gladstone train station.
Mike Schmidt
New York, NY