Original ride leader, John Gorman was not able to lead today's ride to flu-like conditions, I did drop off the cuesheets and in my relief Nancy Avitabile, was the ride leader today, here's her report:

Hi John,

We’re all sending you our strongest “get well soon” message. We missed you, but had a great ride anyway. There were 6 of us (Derick did not sign the sign-in sheet) and we hung together the whole ride and averaged 17 mph.

Here’s a piece for the newsletter:

NOT AS ADVERTISED! The weather forecast for the ride was 62 and sunny. It never made it up past 49 and was overcast and damp the whole ride. That didn’t stop our small group of dedicated riders from having a great ride on John Gorman’s excellently selected bike route. Nancy Avitabile, Ken Meredith (who added miles by biking to and from the ride start – show-off), Cathy Wilson, John K. and Al Manley got into a comfortable pace which they maintained over the full 40 miles. Everything was going great until the last mile when Cathy got a flat tire. Cathy – you almost made it. Thanks for John for putting this ride together and we all wish you get well soon.

Nancy

They promised a nice day in the 60s, but what we got instead was fog, mist and damp, and temps in the 40s all day. The sunny skies finally did arrive, but not until the ride was done. Nevertheless, we went, and we had a good time.

In the group were Janell Saunders, Holly Carr, Jim and Jane Hudnall, Linda and Paul Bankerd, Ron and Jan Tucker, Larry Peed and leader Steve Palincsar. Sarah Clement started late, parked at Johnny Boy's BBQ and rode the route backwards, and joined us on Pope's Creek Road.  

Holly and Sarah both were riding new titanium bikes: a custom Seven Axiom SLX for Holly, sporting rouge et noir trim; and a Kelly Bedford custom, white with exposed Ti highlights, pimped out with orange headset, compression plug, valve caps and cable donuts for Sarah.

Henry and Yvonne Hoyle rode the route on their recumbent trikes, too, starting well before we did.  We saw them on the corner of Newport Church and Bowling.  They had a lot more to report than we did: Henry said "We enjoyed today's ride in spite of it being cooler than we expected, my getting a flat tire, and Yvonne rolling her trike to get out of the way of an inattentive driver who swerved into her lane (no injuries or damage)."

This was the first time we've used McDonough High School as a ride start. It worked out well, and turned out to be exactly where it was supposed to be, just down Marshall Corner from Bumpy Oak; it's just that you can't see it from the road when you drive by.  Perhaps that's why a Certain Rider Who Shall Remain Nameless had trouble finding the place...

It was a pretty route, even with the blah conditions, and in a few places the mist actually enhanced the view: tobacco barns barely visible in the distance and marsh land and water seen through the haze along Allen's Fresh Run.  An average speed in the Used2B/BarelyB range was promised, and that's exactly what we achieved: the faster ones in front averaged in the low 14s, those in back in the high 13s.

We'll definitely do this one again.

Ride leaders Bill Blankenship & Reggie Stokes.
This was a joint ride with the Balto Bike Club. We had Calvin C, Sylvia P, Walter M, Judie A & Julie Ann K from OHBTC & Cindy W, Ken P, Judy S & Suzanne H from the BBC. We also had guest Gunnar B. The day started off bad for me while putting air in my rear tire the valve broke. My thanks to Reggie & Ken for changing it a lot quicker than I could. We started out and I noticed that Suzanne had fallen behind. I turned around and found Suzanne back at the start. She was having trouble with her seat. We couldn't fix it so she went home. I caught up with everyone @ the rest stop. The rest of the ride was uneventful & of course the sun finally came out when we got back to the ride start. The weather could have been better but a good time was had for all.

According to the weather reports, this was supposed to be a great weekend with sunshine and temperatures in the mid 50's to 60's.  Hah!!  Thirteen riders (John Clark, Darin King, Blake Altman, Claire Chiamulera, John Giglio, Scott Walker, Roland ..., Steve Koehe, Danzie Seaward, Gary Johnson, Carole Harris, Drayton Reese, and Jack Gardner) joined me on a very foggy, cool morning.  It was suggested that lights be used for increased visibility and some riders did have them.  The ride was uneventful except for the ride leader's flat tire early in the ride (changed with the help of Jack and Darin) and Reese's flat within a mile or two of the finish.  The group split into the very fast and the rest of us, with the very fast overshooting the rest stop (in spite of the announcement of it being at the 22 mile mark and on the left side of the road!!).  Not to worry, they turned around and joined the rest of us at the Little Store in Aquasco.  The sun did come out but not until the last half hour or so of the ride.  Thanks to all who came out on this visibility challenged day!  Ride leader's ams within the advertised 16-18 mph.

The promise of beautiful weather brought out a large (for winter) Thursday crowd - 15 riders at the parking lot and one joined about 10 miles from the end. And the promise was fulfilled: a gorgeous riding day, bright sun and comfortable temperatures. And a fun ride!  Our route wound around and down and then wound around and up until we reached the Nottingham Store. No one wanted to leave the store, neither the contingent inside nor those basking in the sun's warmth at the picnic tables. Eventually, we did get started again to head for Fenno and St Thomas, Croom to Duley Station and "home" via Van Brady, Molly Berry and North Keys.  The ride was uneventful though we did, briefly, lose someone who turned off on Martin from North Keys instead of just going straight.  

Another beautiful day: sunny, breezy, in the 40s when we left Bryans Road and the mid 50s when the ride was done.  We had a great turnout for early January, a bakers' dozen and more, including Roger Cubbage (in fine form after a 4-bike pile-up on black ice on Sunday out in Fauquier County), Joan Oppel, Mike Bivens, Larry Peed, Richard Harrington, Darin King, Darryl Lowery (on his mountain bike, after a broken spoke ended up destroying the rear derailleur on his road bike last week), Paul and Linda Bankerd, Ken Meredity, Holly Carr (eagerly awaiting delivery of her new Seven Axiom tomorrow), Karen Morgan, Sharon Miller, Sam Perry and leader Steve Palincsar.  Darin posted a photo of the group on Facebook.

The route went to the Pisgah store, then Mason Spring to Ironside, Rt 6 to Bowie, then back on Baptist Church and Ironsides and down Durham Church and west on 6 to Scott's store on Welcome Rd.  At Scott's store the ride split up, the Fast Folks leaving shortly after the middle group arrived.  The rest of us regrouped, had a nice break and then turned left on Fire Tower.

My ride ended shortly afterwards, when my bottom bracket spindle broke, the right crank fell off and I crashed.

Fortunately, the bottom bracket spindle is all that seems to have broken.  There were a few scrapes, rug burns, really; a couple of tears in my tights; a mirror that needs to be replaced, but that seems to be all.  They say I gracefully tumblesaulted, but you can't prove it by me. 

Holly waited with me.  The lovely warm sun disappeared as a heavy layer of gray clouds darkened the sky, and as we cooled down it grew colder. Holly took a photo of me and the bike while we were waiting to be rescued.   And then Larry and Sam arrived, and we were rescued.  As we made the turn from Annapolis Woods to Poorhouse, the sun came back out.

We held our Sunday morning Mountain Bike Ride at Cedarville. Our ride started a little late due to our ride leader being late. Because of flooding caused by the busy beavers we decided to change up the direction and start counterclockwise, part way down the trail we were able to switch to a figure 8 pattern. Once we arrived at the lake, we hand to fix a flat, and then we followed the lake trail counter clockwise. After the lake trail we followed the course clockwise back to the trail head. Everyone had a great time, riders included Matt, Tommy, Randy, Benny, Joni, and Barry

On this fabulous January day, I was joined by Mike Bivens, Richard Harrington, Paul and Linda Bankerd, Diane Harris, Pano Gianniotis, Larry Peed, and guest Jean Wright.  As we headed out the faster folks did just that, went faster.  I pulled up the rear trading places with Paul Bankerd for a while.  We made it to HalfWay Liqours with no issues and continued on.  After a much needed bio-break at the McDs in Bryans Road, we continued down Marshall Hall and up Barrys Hill with no flats!  Yay!  It looked like a family party was going on at the point on Barry's Hill where I had my infamous flat, maybe they were waiting just in case.  Anyway, we all made it back to the Startbucks and the weather was still great enough that we sat outside for coffee and conversation.  The temp remained at the 50 degree mark or more for the entire ride and it was wonderful.

Leader:  Darin King
Riders:  Blake Altman, Scott Walker, Jon Agazzi, Claire Chiamulera, Adrienne McCray
Metrics:  http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1082380
Pictures:  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.587033941312606.149189.147336598615678&type=1&l=31557e141f

Overnight sprinkles had dampened the roads, but not the spirits that showed up at Oak Ridge Park.  As temperatures progressed into the upper 40's, the roads quickly dried, and we were off on a shortish Class A ride.  Most of us had ridden Claire's ride the previous day, so we weren't quite sure how the legs would respond.  Fortunately, Jon and Adrienne came along to add to the paceline rotation.  We had a nicely-matched collection of riders.

Traffic was thankfully light on this Sunday morning as we traversed the eight-mile, no-shoulder New Market Turner Rd (Rt. 6 East) to our rest stop.  Winds were relatively light, and temperatures continued to "soar", so we picked up the pace for the remainder of trek, which took us down to Chaptico before winding our way back via Baptist Church Road and the Three Notch Trail.  A bald eagle appeared close overhead at one point, which sparked everyone's enthusiasm.  No traffic incidents, no mechanic incidents, perfect weather, and an 18.1 AMS all made for a great A+/AA- ride!

Rider Leader: John Gorman   Riders: Wes West, Bill Blankenship, & ( BBC guest) Joe Luers

Today's winter ride forecast, was for a Sunny day, & for once it was!, though starting temps were 35ish, but low winds, so for the 1st Sat ride in Jan, could've asked for a better day. Bill called and advised he was in entroute and he'd catch up w/ us.

The route is a BBC cuesheet ride leaving from Davidsonville Elm School (MD-214/ Central Ave) in Anne Arundel County(this is approx 2-3miles S of the Davidsonville Park-n-Ride).  It travels down rollers thru Queen Anne's Bridge/Wayson & onto the TL light @Harwood Rd (Southern HS), turns R Rt-2 & then L thru the Ownesivlle -Sudley rds onto Swamp Cir w/ a rest stop in Deale on  MD-256 E. Deale Chruchton.

After the break  we took a 2-mile side spur thru the older beach front community, Bill caught up w/ us. (Great job Bill!!, bsc we did over a 15ams  going down & felt good about ourselves considering winter time conditions.)  Upon leaving the community streets, more of the natural incline leaving the water starts.  The route takes MD-256 W Deale Rd back to RT-2 and then thru the standard nice rural horse farms of Brooks Woods/MD-408/ Ed Prout/Sands/Patuxent River/ ending w/ a slight easier return taking MD-214 back vs hiller Queen Anne Bridge to the parking lot.

We stayed within a each others' close proximity and re-grouped @ all turns thruout the day. 1-break @ mile 15 and another quick pull over break after and before hitting more of the elvation changes on the way back.

Ride Stats: 14.0 ams, riding time 2.25hrs, miles 34, elv 1500ft.  All riders gave a "Thumb's Up" and no mechanical issues to report.    (interesting personal note: my ride on  1/1  was 32 miles on IHRT/surrounding rds w/ elv of 730 ft( ams of 15.15) compared to dbling that of today, @1500 ft, for us avg riders, it shows the difference elv has on the overall ams. Those dang unfortunate inclines/hills, maybe I need to move to FL, but at least I don't have to walk hills any more...LOL, so I must've made steady progess from my 1st yr - 2yrs later.)