Santa Hat TNUA
My flabber was completely gasted tonight, when, as I was circling the the lot at the Adams St Recreation Center before the ride, I saw that Scott—Tuesday Night Urban Assault ride leader, owner of Full Moon Vista Bike and Sport, and promoter of the Saturn-Rochester Twilight Criterium—drove a car to the ride.
Sure, his bike was on the roof, but he always rides to the ride. What’s up with that?
Another lap and I saw he had a Santa hat on. Another lap and, WTF? He’s giving out Santa hats. Santa hats that fit right over a helmet. There’s a whole box of them in the back of his car.
I want one!
Turns out, the Santa Hat Ride is a TNUA tradition. There are 50 hats that are used from year to year. (A shame because it would be cool to wear one all week.) Tonight we had 46 riders, so everyone who wanted one got to wear one for the ride.
Once everyone was properly attired in Santa hats, a bag was passed for a donation to Hillside Children’s Center. All I had was the emergency money I keep in my backpack, but that went in the bag.
(Note to self: Take extra money next year. And replenish the emergency money in the black backpack on payday next week.)
Then we were off. Forty-six idiots in Santa hats riding bicycles in the dark. It was fun.
We cruised around Corn Hill a while before crossing I-490 on the pedestrian bridge. Our first encounter with pedestrians for the evening set the tone. It starts with big eyes, and maybe a jaw drop. Then comes the irrepressible smile. Finally it morphs into a barely suppressed giggle or genuine laughter. This was the case everywhere we went.
We rode up Main St to look at the lights and make a spectacle of ourselves. Then out East Ave through the East End. Then we cut over to Monroe Ave and rode out to Hillside Children’s Center. It should be noted that Hillside is not on the side of the hill, it’s actually pretty close to the top of Pinnacle Hill.
At the 1,000 foot scale, instead of previous weeks’ 500 foot scale, Pinnacle Hill is between Highland Park and Cobbs Hill. Hillside is on the east (left) side of the hill. Afterwards, we rode laps in that subdivision with the loop, just below Hillside. Later we crossed Pinnacle Hill, rode up to CRCDS, and back over to Highland Park.
When we dropped off the bag of money, although we were a day late for the Special Santa drop-offs, the counselors came outside and shook everyone’s hand, saying thank you and god bless.
Mission accomplished, it was off for more riding.
We did several laps of the Eastland, Westland loop south of Hillside. Then it was east on Elmwood Ave and a strange stop at some guy Jerry’s house. Not sure what that was all about, but it gave us a bit of a rest before climbing across Pinnacle Hill on Howland Ave. We looped around in there for a while before coming out on Goodman and going up through the campus of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School.
Finally, we crossed Goodman, went up Bellvue through Highland Park, down through the paths to Highland Ave, back up South to Robinson to Mt Hope and back to the rec center to turn in our hats.
Yes, it was the first TNUA where I went all the way back to the start. I sure would have liked to ride off with my Santa hat though.
By the numbers
- 46 riders
- 0 flats, crashes or injuries
- 36°F (2°C), dropping to 28°F (-2°C)
- 14 MPH (22.5 km /h) winds from the west,
diminishing to 5 MPH (8 km/h) - 02:07:55 ride time
- 25.11 miles (40.41 km)
- 11.7 avg MPH (18.8 avg km/h)
- 25.9 max MPH (41.7 max km/h)
- 56 RPM avg cadence
- 121 RPM max cadence
- 7,180 crank revolutions
