Back to Social Bike Riding

I haven't done much social club bike riding lately, but rather solo rides. So, today my buddy Roger talked me into getting back into the fold.

It was a gorgeous day by the 10 am start time. Sun came out at 9 and the temps rose dramatically.

There were the two usual group starts: the hardbutts and the slowpokes... some with cruisers... thus there were variations within the group.

My strategy was to look over the group pre-start and opt out if I detected an undesirable person, but that wasn't needed.

We rode 40+ miles in 4 hours, including 2 long breaks, for a 14 mph total average. My last half-hour was done in survival mode, since this was my first long ride of the season, previous rides being 2 hours or less. I've got to get more serious at gym cardio and bring my endurance and average back up.

Roger stuck with me at the head of the slowpoke group, even though he's thin and strong enough to have gone on with the hardbutts. The winds were manageable, road surfaces mostly good, traffic was light, and there were no dog incidents. I enjoyed talking with Roger and some others but just barely tolerated the few chatty ones (I'm used to silence during a ride). The good thing about group rides with a leader is that he's planned the ride, that you ride with a bunch of enthusiastic people, and that it was nice to be outside riding on different roads to a different destination.

Tomorrow I'm hiking my mountain for several hours, solo... I miss my solitude.

- © 2008 by Willy
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