I got to Mount Vernon about 8am, an hour before our 9am start.
The first folks I see are my "Edge" club members
I asked what everyone was riding and a couple of folks started talking about the rain and how they might bail out and do 30 miles instead of 45,
I got kind of rough with em, come on guys a little rain isn't going to make any difference, as long as we're moving.
There was also a few other things happening around the square, not only the bike ride
This is a shot of the sky to the west before the start, a bit threatening, this is actually the road we finished on
Getting ready for the start
mrbill is happy,
mrbill is fixing to ride his bike
A couple of good windbreakers, Barry and Alan
Taking a break
This is were I spent a bit of time today
up ahead in this pic you can see Barry and Nick
and in this pic you can see Alan behind me, Alan wasn't having one of his better days so I would drop back and pick him up, once he got my wheel we'd start working our way back to Barry and Nick,
just about the time we would get to the next rest stop Alan and I would pull in a little bit behind Barry and Nick, we'd all take off together, come to a little uphill, Alan would fall back and I would fall back and pick him up, this was the routine for the day, I had fun, got a good workout and we all finished close together.
The first time we hit a little climb and Alan started feeling it he said he thought his tire was low, didn't look like it to me but we stopped at the 30 mile cutoff and Barry and Alan checked it out, then I gave it a squeeze, fells fine, so we gave Alan hell the rest of the day, about how his tire seemed get low on the uphill and would reinflate itself on the downhill,
and they did eye that 30 mile cut off, but I wasn't going to let that happen
I always enjoy seeing lady riders, today we had one we were chasing and one who was chasing us, I really liked this gals bike
This may be as close as I ever get to the "Purley Gates"
This was were we had Burgers after the ride, took the pic as I was leaving, most folks gone are not here yet.
Looks like the economic downturn is still effecting the goodie bags, only a T-Shirt no swagg.
The rain never materialized and weather turned out to be just fine.
So all in all it was a great day, good friends, good ride and a burger to boot.
I recommend this ride to anyone, a real nice route, we crossed Lake Cypress twice, once across the dam and then on the return across the opposite end, really nice.
I made a discovery, Dams are nice to ride, they're always flat, I know since I said this someone will send me a photo with a hill in the middle of a dam, go ahead, make my day.
A couple of things that caught our attention:
The guy with the 8 thousand dollar Cervelo who forgot his shoes and rode in Tennis shoes
The guy who showed up barefoot, smoking a cigarette, they say he rode 30 miles but I'm not so sure. I got a kick out of Terry saying how while we're all drinking powerade and eating power bars he's over leaning against the fence having a smoke break, go figure
the only person I saw lost had a GPS
Don't think I'll ever understand the "Feathers on the Helmet" thing, all I can think of is, wind drag