ride with kim's bike shop sep 27

The Excellent Wife (TEW) is leaving tomorrow morning (at a time when the only person awake is usually me) for a week to go down to Florida to see new nephew, so she wants some time with me today (imagine!), and, as I said in an earlier post, her dad is in the hospital and wants some visiting...

...so if I was going to get a group ride in today, it was going to be the early one with Kim's Bike shop. Well, twist my arm. I did that ride two weeks ago, and it was great, so going out with them again today is the opposite of a problem.

(If you want to see the pictures from that ride, click on the link in the previous paragraph.)

I get up early enough anyway to make this ride on time. At this time of your, it's cold early, which is not a problem, but it's also dark, and that is. I had my lights on, and rode it to get there by the 7:00 posted start time, but I could have been fifteen minutes later and still had time.

Early on, some were saying we'd take it easy today. Hrmph. Didn't work out that way...

The route is the same as last time. I'm posting links to today's GPS import to my Garmin site (which is better for laps) and to RideWithGPS.Com (from which you can print a cue sheet; one of the riders asked about the route). These include my rides to and from home.

There was one slower rider on the route, so I volunteered to sweep. At each stop, he started out bravely, but fell further and further behind; by the time we got to Griggstown, he decided not to go up Coppermine and went his own way back. So I struggled up Coppermine myself, and caught up to the rest of the waiting group.

We sprint in a few places: through Colonial Park, down Canal Road after Six Mile/Blackwells Mills, and on the last stretch up Rte 27. By that time the traffic is wakin' up, and to have fourteen-or-so riders taking up the road causes a bit of consternation. But there are enough of us that we can manage the traffic through New Brunswick with grace. (Well, maybe.)

IF Dave thinks about moving the ride to Sundays in the winter, when the shop will be closed, perhaps we could start when there is actually some light out. Huh? Maybe?

Oh, well.

Pictures! Early in the shop and at the start:

At the stop at Six Mile/Blackwells Mills:

Speedin' on back up Rte 27: