The Predecessor and the Successor

been riding a lot lately. have done longer and more difficult rides than I have done in some time... on the road bike at least... I have been riding the Peugot Success, which has earned the nick name "Old Betsy", for the fact that she is an old, heavy bike, and the fact that an english co-worker of mine calls many older bikes that he works on by the same name. I had been holding off on a 60 mile, sunday morning ride due to it's length and the fact that most of the guys that do this ride, that I know well enough to know better of their abilities in the saddle, make this ride a difficult one for even the most accomplished riders. This past sunday morning Old Betsy and I accomplished this sunday training ride, despite her hefty 25lbs of steel, and despite all these other thoughts floating through my head. I figure I have been able to keep up with the local 22 mile, morning rides, now I should be able to keep up with these guys. Well I was right... for about 45 miles... I got dropped. The hard part of this whole ride was that I knew I had a new bike being shipped to the shop... I had been waiting for a brand new Cannondale CAAD10 on the previous friday and hoped that it would have been delivered to the Fish prior to my sunday ride, but no such luck. I could have been climbing some hundreds of feet of elevation on top of 17 lbs of pure race developed technology, but I was on 25lbs of steel and rubber that seemed to be doing everything it could to keep me off the back of the group. The whole while reminding myself that I chose to do this ride... knowing that I had not yet received my new super-light, race worthy bike, that may have given me a better chance of keeping up. Well.. I didnt keep up, but I did show up, and I did try. And I am proud of myself for having done so. The day after that ride I did receive that nice, light-weight, expensive road bike... and it is beautiful, lightweight and very fast... but though I am happy to have this new race machine, I am happy to have accomplished some major challenges on Old Betsy that I had previously reserved for her predecessor.