Friday, March 31, 2006

Time Change, History and Carnage

Time Change
This weekend we lose and hour of sleep, but we gain an hour of precious daylight. Due to the impending time change, the tues/thurs training rides out at the Progress Park ended last night. We will no longer be riding in circles, so we will now resume our normal tues/thur rides that leave from the Chevron station at 6:00pm.

History
There has been some great riding out at the Progress Park this winter season and those of us who have diligently ventured out to Alachua are now looking forward to training on terrain that doesn't repeat itself every 1.16 miles.

Early on in the winter, we developed an informal contest that we dubbed, "The IronMan Contest", to determine who would attend the most rides out at the "Mobious Strip". Early on it was a tight three-man race between Scott, Jayson and Myself. As time went on, I slipped further and further away from Scott and Jayson who had distinguished themselves as a formidable two-man break. These two stubborn competitors showed up in the rain, the cold and the dark of night...unwilling to concede the victory. Through the months of training, family events and personal obligations kept our two leaders from completing the winter with perfect attendance records and in the end only one man had missed less rides than any other Progress Park attendee. That man, and the winner of the first ever IronMan Award in none other than...
JAYSON O'MAHONEY

Congratulations Jayson! As a result of your dedication, you are entitled to dinner at the restaurant of your choice. see Scott to claim your prize.
Here are a few images from some rides out at the Progress Park this season...





Carnage
Unfortunately, our last ride out at the Progress Park wasn't quite what we would have hoped for. I had stationed myself up the road from the group and was attempting to take a picture of them strolling through the park. A moment later, due to a simple lack of concentration two or our riders went down. Doug Flokerth and our youngest rider, Justin Pfaff (9) each sacrificed some skin to the Progress Park gods.

Aside from some soreness and obvious road rash, both of the fallen soldiers will live to ride another day. This is a reminder that no matter how safe, slow or comfortable the ride is, accidents can happen..oh yeah and it's also a reminder to wear your helmets!

So not a perfect ending, but an ending none-the-less. We look forward to seeing those of you who can attend our rides at the Cheveron, starting on Tuesday the fourth of April.

7 comments:

5count said...

Scott, How's Justin doing? Anybody heard from ole' Dougy?

Anonymous said...

Doug is doing ok, despite a big hematoma on his arm, his leg, lots of road rash, and he can barely walk and is using crutches. Other than that, he will live to ride again soon! Many thanks you all of you who took good care of him and Justin after the crash!
Leslie

5count said...

Thanks for the update Leslie, tell Doug that we are all hoping for a quick recovery.

Anonymous said...

Susanne and I wish Jason and Doug a quick recovery. Tell Jason that those crashes build character and really score some points with the girls. And as far as Doug goes, the road rash distracts from the aches and pains of old age.

Glad to hear that you will all be back soon and no broken bones. Can't wait to ride from the Chevron again.

Anonymous said...

Danny, it was Justin who hit the deck, not Jason. Word is Justin is doing well.

Anonymous said...

Yes, it was Justin who took a spill. He is doing fine and rode on Saturday with the Juniors. The "Road Rash" is really cool now, but when we were in the shower scrubbing it out, well I don't have to tell you guys about that. He is looking forward to the races in Jacksonville this weekend to show off his new trophies.

See Ya Tuesday
Scott

5count said...

I had a couple of images from the spill that I hadn't posted earlier, if yer interested click here