Chilly/cold but a nice and bright sunny day.  Scott, Claire, John G, Darin, Blake, Michael B, and Andrew joined the ride leader.  Unfortunately John had a mechanical problem with his right shifter just as we rolled out and could not join us.  (John, I hope you are able to get it fixed OK and thanks for coming.)  No other issues during the ride other then the ride leader not being able to keep up with the group.  Thanks for Blake for keeping an eye on me.  Thank you all for coming.

I had hoped to coax out a broader spectrum of A riders by listing an “easy A.” As it turned out, it was me, Scott Walker, Darin King, and Blake Altman.  We dubbed ourselves the “Core 4” since we ride together often and seem to represent the core Charles County A riders lately. None of us were on fresh legs today, so we agreed to a rotating pace line with shorter pulls. That worked well and we moved along at a moderate clip. Five miles into the ride, David Kemp joined, making us the “Fabulous 5” for the 15 miles he rode with us before departing for a noon commitment. We enjoyed fairly quiet roads and varied terrain on this route. Climbs up Bumpy Oak, Mason Springs, and that little stinker Hilltop helped us forget the chill in the air. I threw in my favorite Durham Church into the return route, which hopefully made my co-riders as happy as me. One flat occurred after the ride as we were all riding home; we all stopped and it was repaired quickly.

Thanks for joining me. We hope more A riders will come out next time. AMS 17.2 

Photo

No one showed for the ride, but I was there when Diane's crew finished up.  I offered them to join me for an easy recovery ride, but they were a little spent from their windy ride.  So, I turned up the dance tunes on my helmet speaker and disco'd my way down to the Marshall Hall boat ramp. The wind wasn't to much of a problem, since the route was sheltered a bit.  After a quick break and a stretch, I headed back and I think I might have had a bit of a tailwind on Barry's Hill as I was standing on the way up (just a for a little while).  No flats, no foul and a great sunny, warm day for a ride.  

It was supposed to be a chilly day - sunny, windy, highs in the 40s, wind chill bringing the "feels like" temperature down.  The sunny and windy part were true: 18-19 mph sustained winds, gusts up to 25.  But amazingly enough, it got up to 61.  I'm glad I had lightweight tights with me in the car.

Four riders (Carol Linden, Bill Lowe, Sheila Harron) and I showed up for the BarelyB/Used2B [BB/U2B] version.  Nancy had at least twice that number for the "We Call It A/B Kicking Back and Taking it Easy" version.  They left 20 seconds before us, and by the time we got up onto Davidsonville Rd they were already making the turn on Rossback; and that was the last time we saw them.

It was sunny, and it was windy: the sort of wind that always seems to be a side wind or a head wind.  No tail winds were in evidence at any time during the day, at least not that I noticed.  We stayed together, occasionally regrouping.  For all the "Seagull Century training ride" aspect, it still turned out to be a nice day for riding.  I ended up with a 13.9 mph AMS, as promised; I expect one or two of the others were in the low 14s.

Scott Walker, Darin King, Jack Gardner, Richard Harrington, and Claire Chiamulera joined me for the inaugural group ride on my new bike, "Zelda"!  It was deja vu of yesterday's MLK ride (led by Blake Altman) as we covered some of the same roads at the start of today's ride.  Blake was there to see us off, having ridden his bike from home (he had obligations and couldn't join us for this ride).   Jack kept a steady (for me, blistering) pace, initially pulling us up Floral Park Rd, with Scott, Darin, and Richard helping to keep the pace up throughout the rest of the ride.  Windy, windy, windy!!  In spite of my new bike, all I could really do was hang on!!  Guess I have to keep training to get stronger/faster.  As Jack said, there's no mechanical doping.  A good ride with the leader averaging within the advertised pace @ 17.1.   

I wasn't sure about turnout, but Larry Peed was waiting at the start when I arrived.  Then Keith Blackmon drove in and joined us.  The breeze was picking up as we got started and required a firm grip while crossing the bridges.  Steve Palinscar met us on the VA side of the WW Bridge and we had a nice ride through Old Town and on the trail.  We stopped at the MLK Memorial and Larry took a walk through.  While waiting with the bikes, we saw other BikeShare riders ride right in to the Memorial grounds without a problem.  In chatting with one of the volunteers, he said it depends on what Ranger is on duty.  I guess we got Ranger Grumpy on the New Years Day ride.  We also did the mini tour, stopping at the Inaugural viewing stand at the White House, took a ride up Pennsylvania Ave, back down Madison Ave along the Mall, noting all the setup for Mondays events. Steve was in Port-o-let heaven, except most were wired shut. We made our way to Hains Point and Larry, Keith and I did 3 laps.  We did not see Steve again, and assumed he headed home. Again, the wind was intense, but only in one direction. And, as we headed back on the Mt. Vernon trail, it was headwind all the way.  A nice change playing tourist downtown rather than just hammering along.  We ended up doing about 39 miles. Here's a couple photos...

Members Scott Walker, Claire Chiamulera, Diane Harris, and Darin King joined me for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ride.  This ride is a mix of suburban, urban, and trail riding.  I had some concerns about the ride to the start of the trails in Maryland but fortunately traffic was relatively light and mostly well behaved.  We rode together most of the time with some splitting up on the bigger hills with the faster riders waiting at the top.  It was sunny, chilly, and breezy at the ride start and sunny, warmer, and breezy at the end of the ride.  Only Claire went to see the monument since the rest of us had already seen it.  (Claire says we should be ashamed of ourselves for not viewing the monument when we had the chance.)  There were no issues on the ride and we all agreed it was different from our usual riding and a bit of an adventure.  The ride leader had a 15.1 MPH average which is below “A” ride range but it is difficult to move much faster with this type of ride particularly if one uses good trail etiquette   (which we did).

To view the gang at the ride start: http://www.flickr.com/photos/92361695@N05/

 

Fog, mist, and wet roads were throughout this ride.  Scott, Blake, Claire, Michael, Andrew and Darin joined the ride leader for a nice ride (temperature wise) despite the conditions.  There were a couple flats near the end of the ride but we were back on the road quickly.  Thanks to all that came.

Ride leaders JulieAnn K and Calvin C were ready to roll at 10am. With the fog and weather conditions we rode the trail and stayed off the roads. Reggie had three laps done before we hit the trail. We did a quick 26. Thanks for the great ride. Till next time.. Ride on riders

We held our Sunday Morning Mountain Bike Ride at Rosaryville, despite fog we were able to get started at 10:00am. We followed the course counter clock wise, and despite the rains during the week the trails were in great condition with excellent traction. Everyone had a great time, riders included Barry, Matt & Will.