bastille day ride

At the last Sunday ride out of Hart's Cyclery, I bought a top-tube bag to keep my camera in. There may, henceforward, be pictures.

During the week, Laura OLPH had written that she had some friends who wanted to come along on today's ride, but they either did or didn't have the chops to keep up. Laura had promised to drop back if they fell off the back of the ride, to keep them company... but this morning, it was clear that one thing they definitely didn't have was enough helmets for everybody. So I met Laura for a few extra miles before the starting point at Hart's Cyclery. Uncharacteristically for Laura, we were early, and there was nobody there until Matt R appeared, with a bike with astonishing hubs...

...and the most excellent socks I've ever seen on a bicyclist (they're visible in the top photo, but there's another below):

A few others did show up, so that by the time we left, we were six: Bruce, on the right below:

... and John (edit: Laura tells me his name is Larry H, and "Whenever I see him I know it's gonna be a fast ride.") and leader Ken G, center and right in this picture:

(...and then I ran out of room on my memory card. D'OH! Gotta clean that off.)

We did more-or-less the same route as last week, except we stopped at the Boro Been instead of the convenience store. Ken was complaining of overexertion and lack of sleep for not pacing me up some long hills, but it was still pretty clear he could have cleaned my clock if he wanted to. The fellow John Larry was also quite strong; he went off home before we made the last few turns to Pennington.

On the way back home, a rider in a limo was trying to get my attention. It turned out to be John & Jane D, who are off to see part of the Tour de France. John's promised to blog about the trip, so he made me promise (at a light, on Route 1) to link to his blog, John & Jane's Excellent Adventures. There's the link, and I'll put a permanent one over in the links list when I finish this post. Have a good time, John & Jane!