Ride leader: Steve Palincsar
Riders: Richard Harrington, Scott Walker, Lisa Oken, Larry Peed, Regina & Mike Saizan, Loretta Troen, Joan Oppel, Darryl Lowery, Alan Kurzweil, Teresa Martin, Karen Fitzgerald, Ryan Steadman, Lara [Illegible], Erica Kane, Darin King, Lou Dallorso and, joining us en route, Sam Perry; members all, according to the sign-up sheet (although no "Lara" could be found in the list of members).
Weather: The forecast called for partly couldy and a high of 53. That turned out to be spectacularly wrong. Bright sun, clear cloudless blue skies, 40s at the start rising to the low 50s by noon and then all the way to 61 by 2 pm. You'd think it couldn't get much nicer than this for the 19th of December (at least, if you hadn't heard the forecast for the 20th).
Route: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/3788195 a 34 mile figure-8 with 1150' of climbing: two familiar loops, but put together in an unfamiliar way.
We began by taking North Keys and Martin to Molly Berry and Nelson Perrie -- except for a couple of A riders who missed either Nelson Perrie or Westwood and ended up with 10 bonus miles on the Croom Rollers -- to Westwood with a quick bio-break at the Baden VFD for the CC group and on to the scheduled rest stop at the Cedarville Deli. No A/B group, so on we went, Cedarville to Dent, St Thomas Church, Poplar Hill and Dr Mudd to the Moreland store, where we did meet the A/B group. Shortly after the CC group arrived, the A/Bs took off, with some following Darin on a six mile bonus loop down Young, Celestial and Wilkerson, the rest continuing to Malcolm, Horsehead, Brandywine and a little jog down Gibbons Church and North Keys.
Mishaps and mechanicals: none, unless you count bonus miles -- and on day like today, bonus miles hardly counted as "mishaps."
AMS: 13.7 for the CC group, and a lot faster than that for the A/Bs.
