'nother co-leader ride

Yesterday (Saturday, August 30).Tom H & I did another of those co-led rides for the club. Now, Tom wrote the book on road rides in NJ (he really did; check the link at his name), and I'm hopeless at routing (I really am; I could get lost in a bathroom), so Tom picks the routes. He goes out first with the faster folks; I ride behind with the slower ones, and to pick up any that don't keep up with Tom & co.  

We had 21 registrants. I usually limit to 20, but I got a communique from a rider when we only had 19 registered that the online registrations weren't behaving, and when I was able to reset the ride listing to fix the problem, another rider zipped in and registered before she had the opportunity. So I raised the max registrants to 21, and registered her myself. (We then had two cancellations. Wouldn't you know it?)

There were three or four rides leaving from the Cranbury start.

 Tom took out his first group after my too-long ride-rules speech, and I followed up... and wound up with ten in my group.

 We were on a route (you can see it at the link) that took us through part of Hightstown and into the Assunpink before heading east into Clarksburg. It was a great day: cool, sunny, mostly with little wind. And while there was the usual range of paces and abilities for a ride of this type, we mostly stayed together and collected at turns and stops (Boris M swept like a champ; I will happily hire him for that service any time he's available).

At the Clarksburg Deli, we rode in just as Tom's group was going out.

 Now, the Clarksburg Deli might have been there when men were being conscripted to go fight the Rebs who wanted to secede. The last time I was there, it didn't look like it had been cleaned since then, and some of that original merchandise might still have been on the shelves. It's been taken over by new management, and, while it could still use paint, it's been cleaned up and is considerably less awful than it was the last time I was there. One of the riders had complained vocally, before the ride, about stopping there, and I would not have disagreed with that person's assessment. It's still no "best rest stop" contender, but I wouldn't forego a ride because that was the planned stop (and I have done that, although those decisions are less about condition and more about the contempt that the stop owner shows to cyclists).

And back. We picked up one who didn't want to finish the ride at Tom's pace. The group continued to pace well and stayed together. We did a mile on Applegarth Road that wasn't my favorite part of the trip (but as is common in this part of NJ, there's not a better road that goes where we want to go). We got back after most of Tom's group had already left.

I hope to do a few more of these with Tom before the weather gets so bad that the smart, sane riders are putting up their bikes for the winter. In the meantime... hey, there's a club ride on Labor Day!