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.