May 24 Rides!

[Fredwina]

I "only" did 140 miles.
I was doing a brevet. and had two flats. Plus a detour to find more tubes
The day was cold and overcast
Snow in SoCal? in May? you bet!:

The Scientology move studios in Hemet:

Giant Futbol Players:

for no reason other than I liked it:

I achieved every Randoneusse's dream! I made it to Paris!

Ok, so the Name is spelled wrong, and it's in California, so sue me
a Jacaranda tree:

[Crankin]

Well, we planned Saturday as a day to get stuff done around the house and errands, preparing for our BBQ on Monday. So, my ride was a total of 7.9 miles round trip to town for breakfast and the bank. My husband doesn't really have any non lycra clothes for riding the Jamis on casual rides, except a pair of mtb shorts. It was still a little cool out at 8:30, so he put on some leg warmers and a jacket, looking very Fred with the baggy shorts. As we rode to Concord center, we were passed by at least 15 roadies, but most waved hi and a few even said "on your left."
It's so relaxing to do this kind of ride. I feel like a kid riding my bike. That is until the way home and I have to pedal up my hill on a heavy bike with a loaded pannier. It's quite a work out and my legs were feeling it all day.
Today we are doing our most challenging (but beautiful) local ride, Old Bay Rd. in Bolton, along with Oak Hill as a warm up. It's about a 30 mile ride from our friend's house, round trip, with 3200 feet of climbing. We stop at the top of the climb and eat lunch in an apple orchard. If I didn't know better, I would say I was in northern Vermont.

I love New England!

[alpinerabbit]

100 K at above 27 kph average. I pulled DBF [had been sick so needed some help - a first for me] for half of that in the flats.

Gotta love my new bike & aero bars.

45 k of this was one loop of the local HIM course. What a bitçh of a hill they put in.

[IFjane]

KathiCville and I rode in the first annual "Tour de Greene" yesterday. The weather was absolutely perfect - brilliant sunshine, temps in the upper 60's by late morning.

As we were leaving the starting point, we heard the announcer say they had a "record crowd" for the ride. Uh.....this was the first one they have ever had....so yes, I guess it was a record. *lol*

I rode the long route - 61 beautiful, hilly miles. A couple roads were a little traffic-y but not too bad. There were a couple awesome downhills - my computer said I topped-out at 41.1 mph on one of them! Wooohooo!!

[withm]

I rode the Shorebird ride on Saturday - it's a ride for the American Cancer Society. It supposed to be limited to 3000 riders but judjing by the cars at the parking lot I'd be surprised if they got half that number. I only did the 35 mile ride because I had to be home by 11 for my condo assn annual meeting (where they announced the $6,000 assessment.... yikes!). I should have stayed and done the metric - I could have done without that meeting. The ride covers some beautiful country - at one point I did not have a single car (or bike) pass me for 10 miles! Not as pretty as the Wild Goose Chase, but it was still pretty nice.

[OakLeaf]

Just the local club ride with the ROMEOs (Retired Old Men Eating Out ) - easy social breakfast ride. Sometimes there are some younger, faster people who ride with the Saturday morning crew, but not today.

We saw a red fox (first live fox I've seen in about four years), a blue heron trying to swallow a huge fish, a yellow Lab who'd caught a big raccoon and was putting the coup de grace on it.

I cut it short to 43 miles so we could head out to the biannual music festival for the rest of the weekend!

[7rider]

Did the N2 ride with about 20 others.
In typical fashion, I got dropped...but there were 3 others with me, so that was fine. We were the "sideshow" as one of the guys put it.
So...regroup, get dropped, regroup, get dropped.
And so it went for the remainder, pretty much.
DH went on to Poolesville. I did the shorter route with a different 3 others. I added on some extra miles by heading to the LBS for a Clif bar and Gu gels and to top off the waterbottles. By the time I got back to the car, DH had returned. We ended up there for nearly an hour afterwards, b/c we kept having people we know ride by - and they'd all stop and give hugs or handshakes. Riding along Beach Drive on a beautiful weekend day is such a fun experience - especially up in the MD section, which is not crazy-crowded on those beautiful weekend days - because we ALWAYS see someone we know and can chat with. Yay, cycling community!
So, I got 52 very hard miles in.

[shootingstar]

I've done 62 kms. today so far --beautiful sunny day, not too hot. It is a regular route for me on weekends by the shore line with some long sweeping hills (up and down), then nipped over to pick up sushi and sashimi combos from my fav. Japanese supermarket.

Then later I will head out and meet my dearie who is arriving off plane on bike from Europe. He will be offloading some pannier weight onto me ..and we'll cycle together for our sushi supper picnic somewhere. It is my welcome back to Vancouver for him....since there was no way he was going to have sushi in Europe, when better stuff exists at home!

After my welcome ride with him, I will have done at least 85 kms. or more in total, today.