10/03/2005 06:18:00 AM|||John Calnan|||

On Sunday Oct 2nd, my friend Kevin and I took our spouses on their first organized bicycle event, the Kitsap Color Classic. Kevin and I had ridden the RSVP together in August.

My wife Terri had thought that she would have liked to do RSVP, but had a slew of health issues through the year that limited her ability to train. Kevin's wife Nina was always more interested in the shopping aspects of RSVP than in the riding. Kevin's brainchild was to have our spouses accompany us on the last big event of the season, on a shorter course, and give them a little taste of event-type cycling. We chose the 36 mile Poulsbo route, as it was advertised as being "rolling", but did not have a description of "big hill" included in it.

As far as the ladies were concerned, a description of "severe mountain climbing" would have been more descriptive of what we took them on. Actually, I would have described the Poulsbo loop as "some hills" rather than rolling. Overall, the route was nice, and the stop in Pouslbo for lunch was splendid, had it not been pouring rain all morning long. After snapping a shot on the ferry as we headed out, I was reluctant to pull out my camera most of the day because of the wet, and the dampened spirits.

Lesson learned: The spouse's first event ride should be short, flat, sunny, but not hot.

Oh, and everyone kept asking me if I really saw a camel back there. I did.

|||112834609690578181|||Kitsap Color Classic10/14/2005 07:15:48 PM|||Jim Carson|||Kevin is most wise :-)

Poulsbo is the prettiest of the three loops. Did the ladies have fun despite the hills (and weather)?