Today was the annual Major Taylors Cycling Club Newark to New Hope ride. I've been invited way plenty of times, including three or four times at the Mercer County Juneteenth Ride, and I decided that it might upset the gods if I continued to avoid it. The main event is the 115-mile ride from Newark to New Hope and back... but I'm not doing no 115 miles in one day, even if I haven't done 54 miles with 3400' of climb the day before. But they offer a 66-mile route from Johnson Park in Piscataway to New Hope and back. Now, Johnson Park is next door to my back yard, and 66 miles sounded possible, so I signed up.
None of the Usual Suspects was interested (and I only saw a couple of Free Wheelers at all, including one who was volunteering). But the folks who had been so insistent about the invite persuaded me that I'd meet people at the ride, and I did. But my energy flagged; I wound up doing a lot of the route alone after being mostly dropped by the people I was riding with. When I got to lunch, there were probably twenty riders behind me; by the time I finished, there were maybe five. I'm hoping my poor performance was due to the demanding ride I'd done the day before.
I went with the intention, though, of getting pictures, and get pictures I did. Here's the group riding in from Newark:
A few leaving the Grove Five, either back to Newark or to New Hope:
And a few more that were just too good to miss:
I don't know if I'll do it again, but I'm glad I did it. You can see the route (and my poor showing) on the ride page.
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