a break in the heat

 During the week I went out on one of the hot days. I figured by 10am, the rush-hour traffic would have passed, and it had, but the heat was more than I could stand, and while I intended about 33 miles, by 18 I knew that the better part of valor was to pack it in... but I was well over 20 before I could plot a way home, and I wound up with an exhausted 27 miles for the day.

But it was much better for a ride today. Club president Mike V had called for an early start for 33-ish miles and 1300' of climb (as usual, RideWithGPS underreported the climb; the ride page shows over 1600'), and that sounded just the ticket. 

Mike and his wife Debbie came, as did Luis C, Jeff L, and Another Jim.

It was a grey day, but that meant that the sun didn't get too hot (for which I was grateful). And although the ride was listed in a range of 13-14.9mph, our average of 15.2 didn't seem to strain anybody's abilities. 

I found the climb was just enough to be challenging without eliciting despair (perhaps I'm getting lazy, but I've found that hilly rides don't appeal as much as perhaps they once did... but I'm gonna be 70 at my next birthday, so maybe that's my excuse). I had a lot of fun on the route, and found the pace such that conversation and enjoying the scenery were possible.

We stopped at Boro Bean, and found another group of cyclists there. I had fund complaining at the younger folks in that group, and they apparently played along nicely.

 

At Boro Bean:

Tomorrow, I'm re-instituting my no-pace rides: anybody can come out at any pace, and I'll ride with the slowspokes. I'm looking forward to it. (Apparently, a number of others are, too, the ride is full!)

mercer juneteenth ride

 

It's a shame those guys don't look like they're havin' any fun, right?

Today was the fourth annual Mercer County Juneteenth Ride. I've made a resolution to do this one every year I can, because I had a great time on it last year (and this year, too); because I want to get out for more charity and big group rides, and because cycling has not been great to black people (the League of American Bicyclists, of which the Princeton Free Wheelers is a member [see our logo], is the successor organization to the League of American Wheelmen, which actively kept blacks out of cycle racing at the end of the nineteenth century). So I like supporting this ride.

I found out Bobbi B was going, so I asked if I could drag along with her, and got put on her team.

Look, you can get most of the info you want at the Juneteenth Ride info page (linked above), and you can get our performance on my ride page (which almost none of you care about). So the rest of this is gonna be pictures, with minimal explanations.

Registration:

Above, Doug S, the organizer, does a video interview.

At the start (I love these pics!):

That guy above had that bike wrapped at a car-wrap shop. He is justly proud of that unique finish. 

Or team did the 50-mile route; Stacey P did the 75, and we ran into her a few times.

First rest stop was at the historic AME church on Hollow Road:

Second stop at Sourland Cycles:

Since we got a picture of Stacey getting a picture of us, Bobbi and I decided to get pictures of each other, each getting a picture of the other. Self-referential rabbit hole warning...

Sourland Cycles has this painting that Larry Chestnut did of Erich Woisetschlaeger. Someday I need to do a post about Erich.

At the third stop at a school in Pennington. They cheered as we came in!

The West Windsor cops were helping us across some of the tough intersections. I've never had so many conversations with cops that didn't end with either a warning or a fine:

Yeah, I'm definitely doin' this again.

enjoying retirement

 

It was a great day for a ride.

I went out for the club's Wednesday C+ ride, and it was just a great day. At the start:

Pat might actually take more pictures than I do.

It was a fun ride with club members on a great day. Not exciting, not competitive, just pleasant and enjoyable.

We went down to Columbus and did a piece of the Kinkora trail before stopping at the quick-stop there.

Ride page.

It's good to be retired.