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| Staggered by Stillhouse |
22 started, 14 finished. We gathered at Aurora Coffee for our second annual
Hillarious ride with high spirits in the face of a disappointingly perfect
weather forecast. No rain, a high
of 62—would this really qualify as Atlanta’s hardest hill ride? Last
year the weather conditions had
provided, figuratively, the 14th hill. By the end of
Houston Mill, the first hill, it was clear that the competition and climbing
pace would challenge any cyclist.
Three of our gang disappeared shortly thereafter, earning the T. Beisel
Memorial Award for first to DNF.
From there on, Matt Corse, Joey Rosskopf, and Marcus McMillan dueled for
the honor of first over the top with 20-year-old Rosskopf gradually asserting
his strength and winning the last 8 hills.
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| Attacking Mary George |
The rest of us battled for pride and the points,
distinguishing ourselves with our determination to finish. We had some notable
firsts, including
our first woman finisher and our first 70+ finisher. We ditched Vickers and replaced it with Riverly Drive,
another first intended to raise the level of difficulty. We finished around 3
PM, a full hour
earlier than the first Hillarious though, of course, that had more to do with
the weather and organization than our riding ability!
Our many “firsts” benefited from outstanding work from our
Ride Director, Corinne Powell, and her capable crew. Ana and Andy Baillie, Michael Tabachnik, Angus Whyte, Henry
Slack, and Mike W. kept us safe from cars and recorded the finish order impeccably.
Steve Marks photographed the finishes
for the entire day, including the afterparty at Osteria.
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| Our Esteemed Ride Director |
Local residents turned out in force to cheer us on up the
hills. At least, I can recall a
guy walking his dog at Errol Place, a car that tooted on Northside , a
gentleman befriended by Michael T. at the base of W. Wesley Ridge and a few
walkers at the top of Hillpine— definitely a better fan turnout than last
year. The ultimate comment on our
bike heroics, though, came from the 3 young boys who joined us as we approached
Mary George.
“What y’all doin’?
Can we come?” they asked, peddling furiously beside us on little bikes.
“Sure,” we said, “Come climb Mary George with us--it’s a
couple blocks ahead.”
“We can do that!” they enthused.
Then 2 young
girls about their age walked out of a house just ahead.
“Hey, it’s Keisha and Tanya,” observed the oldest boy.
He veered into the driveway with his buddies close behind
him and started chatting with the girls.
And thus we were dropped, or they were dropped, ending their chance to
make history as the youngest riders to complete a Hillarious hill (a “first”)
and leaving us to toil up another steep slope for our own amusement.
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