Happy New Year!

I’m surprised at the number of people that turned out for the Annual Spoke-n-Sport New Year’s Day Ride. I’d guess between 150 and 200, but I’m as likely to be short as long. The weather was beautiful, (30 degrees little wind), but I figured some ice would keep more people away.

I rode to the ride, actually following some tracks for a long time wondering if I'd be following them all the way in. I roll by at least one cyclist’s home almost daily. By the pre-ride looks of him it wasn’t his tracks I was following.

The local biking bloggers were in-effect. Mr. Bite snapped me a couple times as I rolled in. I met Eayste’s parents. They were rolling on their tandem. Riding tandem on ice requires some serious marital fortitude. I don’t know if I have that in me…let alone The Wife. I saw the PeddalinShutterbug but didn’t get to talk with her.



The PinkFlash found his way in from Minnesota to roll. The guy on the left is rumored to own a yellow Judy. (I gotta stay friends with him. (Hi Jamie!))



I spent most of my time with The Pastor and The Owner. We started toward the back and faded from there as we tried to be helpful to the riders who found themselves on the ground. I remember at least 9 people putting the rubber side up in my proximity. I applied a band-aid to the nose of one rider. The Owner went down on a bridge. Later The Pastor went down and took at least two with him. I was willing to ride over his hand to stay upright and missed it by just an inch. That makes up for him almost dropping me earlier as he found a stride just a touch beyond what my legs could comfortably do on the single speed.

The post ride free chili was excellent as usual. I even won a bag of schwag via drawing. Another highlight was a proper introduction to the mystery rider from a few weeks ago, and her husband, and his riding mother. Most excellent.

The ride home was cold until I warmed up the sweat on my clothes. I overdressed. I followed an additional set of tracks home further enforcing my suspicion that someone on my side of town had ridden. Was it you?



I took a couple shots of my bike when I got home. Yeah, that's a yellow Judy frozen in the fully compressed position making the bike a fully rigid ride with bad geometry.

Happy ’07.