No club ride today, instead, volunteers from the New Brunswick Bike Exchange (and some others) provided support for the Edison Bike Tour. That's the rogue's gallery, above.
Rumor had it that the route was gonna be 21 miles, but RideWithGPS reports 26 (I had a couple of extra miles before the start, because of course I did). I'd hoped to ride ahead and back to add miles, but that wasn't the way this one worked; the police closed the roads as we all went by, and we had to stay with the peloton (there were kids and other slow riders, so we couldn't all go at our own speeds).
At one point, a rider had a flat, and I was halfway through getting him going when I was stopped and told to have him and his bike carried by the sag wagon, to be addressed at the stop, because we couldn't allow any more time with the road closed.
Even with just 26 miles, I was beat, with the constant starting-and-stopping, the slow speed, and the looking out for riders who needed attention. And I'd dressed for the predicted mid-60's-and-rain, not the 82-and-sunny that we actually got!
I had a couple of nice chats with the support cops (which were among my most successful interactions with the constabulary: all those police, and not one said, "OK, license and registration. Do you know why I stopped you?").
It was fun. I'd do it again...
...but on the way home, the seatbag fell off the bike and got run over in traffic.After the loss of the favorite tire tool (and also the discovery that a pump wasn't working) yesterday, I'm in a foul mood over the need to replace so many bike-y things on which I depend. (I did salvage a good CO2 inflator and some metal tire levers... but a collection of chain quick links, among other things, is gone, gone, gone.) I am exceptionally grumpy about it.
Enough. How about some more pictures?
It was great tour for beginners like me , and Jim was very helpful and Fixed my Bike seat.
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