Having been only riding all by myself around the back roads in upstate New York & maybe going through my 1 stop light town, I have now jumped in with both tires into riding with other cyclists and TRAFFIC! I am in London for the month and have started cycling around Richmond Park in south west London, it is full of cyclists of all different degrees. It is really impressive to see some of the riders, wow! They are very good and fun to watch as I am huffing and puffing up the hills and they are zooming past :-) But in order to get to Richmond Park, I have to brave the busy streets to get there, I'm getting better, but still walk my bike across the intersections, not ready to start switching lanes quite yet ;-/

DH and I also did the Prudential Freeride today in London, which is the prelude to the Prudential Ride 100 tomorrow, from London to Surrey, the Freeride was awesome, cycling through central London on traffic free streets among huge crowds of other cyclists! Having never ridden in close groups of cycles, it was another new thing to experience, top speed was maybe 8-10 mph, I was ok with that! Another first which happened today, riding just over 40 miles in one day, including my morning cycle in Richmond Park and the Freeride, I'm very tired now z z z , the furthest I've ever ridden before this was 28 miles.
I am enjoying, for the most part, this new cycling life, but I think I will be very happy to be pedaling along by myself on the a quiet back road when I get back to New York!