pre-christmas conover ride

So since I didn't get enough cold weather on Saturday's ride, yesterday I decided to go out with Winter Larry and his crew... of which there were nine by the time we left! I didn't think there would be so many comparatively cold-weather riders, but there were Barry, Tom Y, Sean, Peter F, Marco, Laura OLPH, and Matt (Whom I didn't remember, but he thought he remembered me). Matt, I remember, appeared much less bothered by the cold than the rest of us; more than one of us remarked on how few layers he was wearing, and the thinness of his gloves.

Larry had a road he wanted to try over near the Marlboro hills at Conover, so off we went on this route. (I like hills, and these will do until we get to the real ones on the other side of Route 1, but, in general, Larry's rides are mostly flat, and this was no exception; it was a mostly-flat ride; still, I did get up over 32mph at one point, so there must have been a decent downhill.)

WE stopped at a bagelry that was new to me. On the way back, one of our number had a low-blood-sugar situation. We stopped so he could eat, but he didn't get back up to speed for the rest of the ride in. As riders do, we tried to make suggestions and analyze the situation, but it might just have been a fluke of the day (although one made a suggestion that he carry more food, especially on cold days, and that is probably a good idea.) Two of us stayed back with him, but we all got back more or less together - that's the point of a no-drop ride, right?

After I got home, I found my rear wheel had gone way out of true... but that's another story.

Pics, beginning at the start in Cranbury:

At the stop. When it's this cold, I am too klutzy to take out the camera frequently.