Say do you remember...cycling in September

[Crankin]

We led/swept our annual ride in Tiverton/Little Compton, RI/Westport, MA. It was 81 degrees today! Some years it's been 48.
DH agreed to sweep, which left me with the middle of the pack. Poor DH was stuck with a group of women, who weren't just slow, that would be OK, but treating the ride as a tour, not a group ride. A couple peeled off before lunch, to looky-loo, and after lunch, the whole group of them went off alone. Why even sign up? Well, I think they wanted to go to the after ride dinner at a lobster shack. So, I stayed in the back with DH after lunch, for awhile, until he left me, then we regrouped and the leader told us to go ahead with a few people while he waited for some to use the bathroom. We had just regrouped again, after the top of a hill, when a guy got a flat. Since the leader was now at the back, we went ahead, and DH went back at one point, to ask some of the riders if the leader had stopped to help the guy. He had, so we continued on, in the lead. We really picked up the pace, since we have plans to go out tonight , for DH's birthday. The last road on this ride is a slight uphill, and I always feel it. However, we did really well, and the whole ride felt like it went faster than usual.
The 3 of us decided that next year, we will not advertise this ride on the club's web site, and Lamar will just call the people who want to ride in a beautiful location, but are all about the same speed. We have had 2 groups in past years, but this year we limited it to 22 people, but Lamar gave in and let those women sign up, despite knowing they did not fit in with the rest. He has a "following" of ladies, always does a dinner afterwards, etc., where I just want to go home after a hot and sweaty ride. It takes an hour and 20 minutes to get there, so I am glad I am home and ready to EAT!
40 miles, flat and some small hills in the second half.

[Crankin]

Today was one of my worst riding experiences, ever! But, even worse for DH. We volunteered to lead a ride that was done in conjunction with our synagogue and 2 other local congregations in other towns. We worked with with the guy spearheading the thing, in helping him with things like liability, etc. I invited him to come on a ride that I swept last wk. with another leader, so he would see our style. So, after leading yesterday, going out to dinner last night, we drove over to our temple, which is in the next town at 8 AM. There were about 20-25 people for a 9 AM start. The purpose of this ride was to provide information about several organizations that work for peace in Israel; one, Seeds of Peace, is a well known group that works with teens from many warring countries, by sending them to camp together, in Maine. They do all kinds of other stuff, too. DH gave the safety talk, and we headed out.... cutting through the high school campus, where my kids went to school. As soon as we got out to the next street, I could not even see DH, maybe a couple of other riders way ahead, and 2-3 slower people in front of me. I was pissed.
One of these women, was wobbly, had poor road skills, and was scaring me to death. I won't go into details, but when we had to ride through Concord Center, she got on the sidewalk and started laughing, in the middle of tons of traffic, pedestrians, and other riders. I had her and another woman get behind me, and led them though the traffic... and got to the next congregation.
DH came running up to me and said, "I'm done!" Apparently, the riders went racing ahead of him, pushing the speed up to an average of 18-20, after we advertised the ride as 13-15 average. They basically told him they would do whatever they wanted, were very rude to him. Now, DH can ride this fast, but this was not the purpose. Plus, they all got lost, since they weren't following him, and half of them didn't even look at the cue sheet or have a GPS. We were about to ride back to Acton, when the guy who had set this up volunteered to take the "fast group," and several people were clamoring to go with us. It was fine after that, in terms of speed, and staying mostly together, except for one woman whose chain fell off twice, and the we got caught up in a group *motorcycle* ride, as we were approaching a left turn at a busy intersection. They were 3-5 abreast on a 2 lane road, wouldn't let us in, and made the left turn, on a red light, stopping the cross traffic. We had to work to quickly get in the next left turn lane and the wobbly woman was hugging the right side of the road, after the motorcycle people got through. Oy. I think I said the f word, not very leader like. When we got to the next synagogue, I was upset, hot (it was like 85 degrees today), and suffering with allergies mightily. I got some food, and it was fine after that, as we were heading back, and after another horrendous left turn in traffic (we did not plan the route), we were on quieter roads that I am familiar with. The wobbly woman made a few other egregious moves, but I tried to teach her how to shift,a fter she almost fell over on a hill.
We all came in together, and were thanked profusely, but I will not be volunteering to do this again.

[rebeccaC]

.....the reason i most often ride alone or with people i know