Pacific Pizza Spirited Group Ride

The following is a guest post from my friend Alan Jacob about a rad cycling event that took place here in spo this Tuesday past. Here's a bit of backstory. Thanks for putting this fun post together, Alan. Take it away . . .

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When it was announced late last week that this Tuesday’s Twilight Series race was canceled, my friend came up with a great idea: why don’t we have a rally ride instead. It’ll be just like a race but it won’t be a race at all. It’s a spirited group ride, officer. :-)

But it was a dark and rainy day. All day. I thought the Pacific Pizza Spirited Group Ride would be a bust. But then the clouds parted, the roads dried out, and it turned AWESOME and the ride was on!

Riders showed up knowing that they’d be doing a 25-mile ride, but had no idea where they’d be heading. Once they signed up for a start time, they were given little slips of paper directing them to the three checkpoints. At each checkpoint was a sign with a secret word. Put all three words together and the following phrase resulted, “Happiness Is Bicycling.” True dat.


Never before have I seen an iPhone put to “real world” use so well. When the riders received their checkpoints, all of a sudden everyone whipped out their iPhone and started plotting their route.


Groups were hastily formed, some riders choosing to do it solo—figuring it’s easier to make a sudden turn down an alley if you don’t have to tell anyone what you’re doing—while others opted for a team approach—drafting is always a plus.

Realizing that they didn’t stand a chance against some of the other teams, Quentin and Andy (smartly) cheated. They simply called the furthest checkpoint, asked the owner of Argonne Cycles what the secret word was at his store, and then went to the two closer checkpoints. When you can’t beat ‘em through determination, stamina, and skill, you’ve gotta rely on something, right?


But at the end of the night, the fastest time went to Scott Coldiron who got to all three checkpoints in 1:11.11. Pretty stinking fast, if you ask me, especially when you consider all the traffic lights he MUST have stopped at…


Results:


And at the end of the ride, the riders’ $5 bought them an 8-inch pizza and a beer.




The folks who showed had nothing but rave reviews for the event. The anticipation of waiting to find out the route, the last-minute attempt to chart the best course, seeing the other teams on parallel blocks and suddenly doubting your fastest route, riding like crazy and trying to remember the secret phrase, pizza and beer. What could be better?

No doubt there’s another one of these already in the planning stages. Or so “my friend” tells me.

“Happiness is Bicycling”