Real Ale Ride
Posted on June 23, 2008 by Andrew
There are few organized cycling events that are as appealing - by name alone - as the Real Ale Ride. It has two of Beef and Pie’s primary reasons for existing encapsulated in the title. Brilliant.
Needless to say, we were there en masse. This was the biggest team turn out for a ride ever. It seems that beer, and not George Bush, is the great uniter. Who knew? And what a great place to ride! The beautiful Texas Hill Country, late May, not much wind, and the ride site is the Real Ale Brewery, right in Blanco.
Those faithful fans of the B+P cycling blog, who spend many hours a day on this site, will no doubt be wondering who the spandex-clad magnificent athlete in the center of the team of other magnificent athletes is. That, my friends, is none other than the good Team Doctor, the Beef in Beef and Pie - Mike Woolf - and let’s not kid ourselves: the six-pack is the only reason he’s here. I’m having a hard time believing it myself: His Beefiness typically regards our cycling activities as mindlessly stupid forms of torture, only marginally more productive than banging one’s head against a wall repeatedly for a few hours: You feel much better when it’s over, so why do it in the first place?
Back to the beer: It took a lot of cunning strategy to get Beefy up, pre-dawn, on his way to a massive bike ride. Weeks of idle chatter about the lovely hill country, the scenic route, how short his ride would be (only 15 miles!) and then , the coup de grace, the fact that it was being held at the Real Ale Brewery, purveyors of an array of fine brews, long-loved by the folks at B+P Global HQ… And so it was, that long-time teammate Joey “the Cuban Missile” Machado, Beefy and myself found ourselves joining Beto and Allen in the sleek Pure Austin Airstream for a pre-ride cup of Beef and Pie “On The Rivet” blend about an hour before the start. We get our race packages as hundreds of riders start to arrive at the brewery and traffic backs up onto the highway. Beefy puts on a Beef and Pie cycling uniform which, I suspect, is the first spandex he has ever worn. Then Joey explained the whole “chamois” concept.
This did not go over too well. But the thought of beers won the day, and so Beefy suited up and joined the proud ranks of other Beef and Pie athletes who were rolling in gradually. Richard and Andy joined us soon, planning on 60 miles, ditto for Beto, Allen, John, Adam, Colin and Adam. Some pix from before the start:
The ride was pretty epic. I did the 80-miler with Joey, so we didn’t see much of our teammates until after the finish, but everybody seemed to have a good time. The day couldn’t have been nicer, the countryside was truly lovely and the route challenging. Then came the reward: lots of Real Ale and some BBQ to replenish the system. (Thanks for driving home Joey.)
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