January 6th ride

[DeniseGoldberg]

Bad day today...
all of a sudden, i was crashing and so did two people behind me.

Robyn -
I'm glad to hear that you and Steve (and your bikes too!) about both OK in spite of what sounds like some nasty bruises. I'm sending healing thoughts to both of you.

I'm appalled that no one else stopped to see if you were OK. That's definitely not good group riding behavior, and beyond riding, not good behavior as a member of the human race.

--- Denise

[DebW]

Robyn, sorry to hear about your bummer of a ride. Heal quickly.

[Bad JuJu]

Wow, what a day for cycling weirdness.

Strangely warm and humid day here, even for Florida. Here in the panhandle, it should be cool and dry in January, but today, no such luck. I was just able to squeeze in barely 20 miles between bouts of rain. Of course I came home dripping wet anyway from road spray and mist, but SO glad I got out. Supposed to have more of the same tomorrow, only with thunderstorms thrown in, so I don't see myself going out in that.

[7rider]

Wow.
Gorgeous day in MD. Sunny (but breezy) and 70! Ummm...is this January?? Somebody tell my daffodils and the cherry trees. I had a trio of flickers working the yard over for bugs that don't know it's winter this a.m. I broke a sweat taking down the Christmas lights!
So...DH and I had to go out. Just wouldn't be right, since this weather is so wrong. We were riding in shorts! We had visions of doing our "French Countryside" loop, but the thought of some of those hills on our tired, way out-of-shape legs did not seem appealing. So we did "108 and back", a flat route up New Hampshire Ave, with a detour down Tucker Lane for some hill work. Tucker Lane is a series of short, sickly steep rollers and I questioned which was tougher - long steady hills of the French Countryside route, or the short steep killers of this one. I didn't win the argument. Anyway, Tucker Lane is very tree covered, so the roads were still wet. We both took it very easy on that road.
All told: 20 miles bit off my goal of 2500 for '07 in 1:24:00, which is, what? 14.3 mph avg.
Oh...and later in the day...we stopped in to visit my bike-commute partner. His knee is fine, had surgery to repair his quadricep! He tore the tendon holding it to the knee clean through! Ouch! He's out for about 12 weeks for healing and rehab.

[Fredwina]

Well, I'm going to add to the bad vibes, too.
We were going to go and do Sunset loop in Redlands(on of the stages from The Races there), but the weather forecast was calling for Santa Ana winds. I was going to be charge of the longest option(70 miles), but no showed except for a Tandem couple who was going to do a shorter option. I asked I could hitch a ride with them back. The winds weren't bad in the Morning, but were supposed to pick up, and lot of the riding was through some very gang-infested neighborhoods(I Think they would still be sleeping in the morning), just As I was getting ready to take off, I heard some one call my name. Another rider from the club had showed up. We called the tandem couple and told that we would be going west instead of east(they told the wind was "very bad").
Things went fine until we got to the midpoint of the Ride (Bonelli Park in San Dimas), The other rider had pulled ahead on a hill. I was descending and saw him standing in the middle of the road with his bike . The Rear Derailleur had broken . We tried to make an emergency Single Speed, since we were about two miles from a shop, but had no luck. He eventually called his DW to rescue him and I went on my way. I discovered that chain breaker of my minitool was missing a piece, so I went and got a replacement. Had a flat, Stopped by REI and got a rack trunk, and went home (not wishing to press my luck) wound with 53 miles

[Geonz]

I rode out to the bike shop and traded my big red commuter for my fast blue Trek (it stays out there 'cause there are group trainer rides on Tues and Thurs) then rode with our little group then back out to trade back for my commuter bike, where more people were dropping in with condolences - still kind of wrapping around the idea that Fritz will not be there (he unexpectedly died in his sleep Mon/TUes at 61). He and Peter have been out there for many moons. He will be missed.
Rode home via grocery store and enough loops to get a metric century 'cause I said I'd do a dozen of them this year at bikejournal. (It also put me back AHEAD OF HOWARD )
Okay, we *did* have a flat on the ride... but JOhn admitted it was self-imposed. THe very same man who chastised *me* for riding a tire until it fell apart needed a boot and a ride home
Some of you might hafve thought it was cold but it was at least 40 for most of it, and 10-15 mph winds... well, they're typical around here...

[Popoki_Nui]

Yet another wind and torrential rainstorm overnight and this morning. More trees down, so navigating local roads and trails was next to impossible.
Decided to do a little caching instead (am I the only one on the planet who didn't know what geocaching was until recently?? ) Snagged two or three caches this afternoon while there was a break in the awful weather, and headed home for a hot bath.

[Meaux]

Our ride started out badly. Last night at 10 pm we found a really bad cut in DH's tire and we thought we wouldn't be able to ride at all, however my father-in-law knows one of the LBS's owners really well and we were able to get a tire early this morning. We drove an hour northeast of Houston to Coldspring, but when we got there, it was very foggy, and we didn't want to ride in the fog. We had planned a 40-50 mile ride today, however, we had to wait in an odd little cafe (it had a mannequin in an old-fashioned dress standing right near the door, creepy...), so we were unable to do a full ride. So, we went out to a state park and 17 miles on the park roads. (It wasn't foggy there, oddly enough.) Even though we weren't doing the ride we wanted, it was the first time we had actually ridden together as a team, it was great fun. My father-in-law fell once, and I was coming in (sprinting at 23 mph, I might add), I fell over. I was slowed down, of course. It was one of those falls you get when you're going too slow. I'm probably going to have a bump on my arm, but it wasn't bad at all. I laughed.

[GLC1968]

I can't believe that we rode in short sleeve jerseys in January!! I recorded a high of 73 degrees today!

Rode 56.4 miles with DH today. First 35 miles were awesome...fast, warm and a lot of fun. Last 20 miles back to the car sucked. Nasty headwind on open farmland made for a slow pace and some difficult miles. Avg speed overall was 16.1 mph and that amazes me considering how slow the last 20 were.

All in all, a really nice ride...especially for winter!

[Bad JuJu]

Decided to do a little caching instead (am I the only one on the planet who didn't know what geocaching was until recently?? ) Snagged two or three caches this afternoon while there was a break in the awful weather, and headed home for a hot bath.

I've known about geocaching for quite a while, and it sounds intriguing and fun; but I barely have time for cycling and a little kayaking, never mind adding another outdoor sport. Maybe when I retire....

[KayTee]

DH, a.k.a. BikeBoy, finally got around to modifying and installing the new stem and bar we got for Barbie, my winter bike. Because of lower back pain & sciatica, I had to be set up higher in front. I took her out for a shakedown cruise this afternoon in bright sun and 71 degrees. BikeBoy and I rode a leisurely 50 miles from home around the county, just enjoying the day and being out in short sleeves in January. We'd had another 1 1/4" of rain last night, and with the water table so high from other recent inundations, several creeks overflowed onto some of the roads. Nevertheless we were able to get through without rerouting. Beautiful day!