Wednesday ride report

Nicky was ready to come back on a Wednesday and his summer of racing was evident as it was a chellenge to stay on his wheel. He ripped through the groups out there training for HHH this weekend. On one turn, near the Williamson Park's cut-off, I followed him through with a lean angle that I don't think I've been so far over short of a crit corner. The Vredsteins held firm. We were joined by another new student, who already was able to drop all of us on the rapid "up" sans Mr. Boulle and Vangeli.

We have been welcoming new students and continuing a dialogue with the other local Universities regarding their cycling clubs. More on that later...

Wednesday Ride report

We we're contacted by a PMBA student today, Court Carreker, and we welcomed him on the ride, unfortunately he had to make it a short ride due to other commitments. Always good to see people with SMU affiliation come out.

On that note, the remaining cyclists met at the White Rock Boathouse after doing the Loving Hills. This one guy, Ryan Cooper, has been at the water fountain the last three or four weeks about the same time. One week he's wearing a UT jersey with Rockwall cycling shorts, next week only the shorts and a Rockwall jersey, this time no orange (which is Rockwall Cycling and UT's colors.) I have said "hi" every week, this time we struck up more of a conversation, only to discover he has a Masters from SMU and is a current Ph.D student in Engineering at SMU's newly named Lyle School. Despite our SMU kits, he never commented on his SMU affiliation till this week. He just cat upped from a 5 to a 4, so I will need to introduce him to Nicky since they have been racing the same series.

Kurt, Caryn, Kevin, Court (a bit of alliteration) and myself had a spirited ride, until my new SRAM red crank arm started to loosen a bit (haven't had the 100-200 mile re-tighten yet.) I didn't want to damage anything so I was way behind the action after the White Rock Trail hills.

Till next week and the return of our students...

SMU Jerseys ETA 9/15

Thanks to Kevin Kendrick for providing the last few dollars to pay off the supplier. We should get our new jerseys mid-September after a long gestation period with the new supplier, then we will know if the wait was worth it. Afterwards we will start to determine a winter order with jackets, arm warmers and more jerseys as we hope the club grows further, and winter apparel will be needed.

Wednesday Ride

We met at the flagpole and the benefits of being a registered club are paying off. AARO has introduced numerous students to the club, and a new recruit showed up tonight. As we made our introductions, the new student, Dallas Blagg, described how he had heard about the club,and what he had been doing (bike commuting in Switzerland to his dance gigs.) Turns out he is an incoming Meadows Division of Dance student. I asked him, "Did you loose an iPhone recently?" He was shocked but pleased it had shown up. It had taken me a moment to piece the clues together, but Debbie Barr from the Dance Division found this iPhone in a studio, and after some detective work determined it belonged to Dallas (but we did not know he was an incoming student.) It was his recent Swiss residency, not his name that finally clicked for me! I had it in my desk with his name on it, but I said he would have to buy a SMU jersey as reward!

With Dallas (named after a county in Iowa and a third generation male to be named "Dallas") we had Caryn, Michael, Kevin, Kurt and myself, meeting Tony at the lake. Kevin and Mike had last seen each other at RAGBRAI, and it was evident that Mike had used those extensive miles to the good, since he seemed pretty strong (wheelsucking smartly and embarrassing me in the sprint) and Kurt seems to be warming to group riding. Caryn had to ride her TT bike since she has had an epidemic of flats on her Bianchi (and the Trek is waiting for ceramic bearings) She is reminded how AL hurts, C comfortable. Kevin was showing off his RAGBRAI jersey, and said RAGBRAI is something everyone has to do (seems a bit freddy, but the parties can be epic)

At the watering hole we regrouped and had a enjoyable post ride conversation and we are looking foward to when the students return.