I knew I was in trouble when I pulled into the start and there were 4 tandems prepped and ready to go. Ed/Mary, Gordon/Lynn, Steve/Lynn, Chuck/Crista. Jeff Magnuson and I were the only ones on Solo bikes. The pace started out reasonable, but after most of the group pulled over for a pitstop, I softpedaled ahead. Gordon and Lynn soon joined me. We talked for awhile, passed the first rest stop and then with about ten miles to lunch, they picked up the pace and I had to drop into their draft to stay with them. Soon, they picked the pace up and I couldn't even hang in their draft.

Jeff wasn't far behind, so he joined me pretty quickly. Then the other tandems showed up and dropped the hammer as they passed me (about 5 miles from lunch).

Lunch was pretty good and was probably made better by the company. Ed and Mary announced their engagement. He had proposed after a ride on Christmas Eve. Mary wrote up a ride report, but she left out the part about her engagement... The restaurant we stopped at looked a bit nicer than the Pig & Steak. So I didn't get any sweet potato fries. We got to lunch so early that we were done by 12:15. We were trying to beat the rain that was forecast for 4pm.

Ed and Mary were planning to take the shortcut around mile 82, but they were haulin' @ss after lunch, so we suggested they might have a bit too much energy to be cutting 4 miles off the ride. With 3 miles left in the ride, we felt a couple of rain drops. I was in my car and on my way home before it really started coming down.