Hearts Racing Club

Rides

1/1/01

Polar Bear Ride

This year's ride offered its share of thrills to go with the ever present chills.

It was pretty much agreed that this was not the coldest Polar Bear there ever was, but it was considered to be pretty chilly, and the attendance reflected that. With balmier weather last year, we had nearly fifty riders. This year, we had a bit fewer than half that.

But the folks that showed up seemed to have a good time. As usual, Ken Putnam provided support for the ride, with two rest stops liberally stocked with bananas, fig newtons, gatorade, and the ever popular nutter butter peanut butter sandwich cookies. One of the innovations of this year's ride was providing hot chocolate to riders, thanks to Drew McCarthy's campstove (photo). One wonders exactly why it took so long to figure out how to do this, but everyone liked it.

Christine Rucker came along for the ride, taking pictures for the Winston-Salem Journal. Two of those photos made it on the front page of the Metro section Tuesday morning. One shot was of the group riding along US 64 (photo) towards Fork Church. The second shot was of Paul "The Animal" Rigsbee (photo), as he wins the award for most stylish neck warmer. Greg Bean (photo) made an early start, staying ahead of the ravening pack for more
than half the ride, sporting his stylish handelbar fairing. Duke Weeks was there, and surprisingly enough, did NOT appear to be wearing much more clothing than he normally would for a late spring ride. Famous Joe Chavis, of Greensboro, was the macho man of the day, riding the entire route on a fixed gear.

Ken Putnam discovered a good sized pack of hunting dogs wandering around looking for quarry on Fork-Bixby Road ahead of the pack, and laid on the horn, driving off the road and spooking them well off into the woods. The dogs looked puzzled, to say the least.

The main pack had one minor pileup a bit further down that same road when a rider tapped the wheel of the rider ahead and went down, taking a couple of others with him. No major injuries to report, although one set of handlebars was down for the count, and several wheels needed some on-site tweaking, provided by Ken, to get them rolling.

All in all, it was a good ride. All the more reason to look forward to the next one, and the one after. Thanks to everyone who came out and rode, and thanks to those who supported the ride. We'll see you next year!