New years day I went on the "I've done every ride this year" ride. I left Germantown to drive to the ride start which is in Mt. Airy. It was slightly overcast and comfortable (60 degrees maybe). When I arrived in Mt. Airy there was fog and it was cold. There were a couple riders already there and they were prepared for rain. As it approached ride time there were about 20 people there on new years day in the heavy fog. Most people picked up the cue sheet for 19.7 miles. There was one single mother there on a tandem with a add-on bike and a trailer. I was impressed! Everyone was saying they'd never seen that before. The oldest of the 3 kids was probably 8 or 9. Not much force in the power category.

There was a guy who showed up on this ride who had the nose of his seat pointed DOWN! I thought "he doesn't know what the heck he is doing". He had a mountain bike and seemed like a sane person. When the ride started he rode off in a wheelie! He stayed there as long as I saw him. Obviously he wasn't the fastest guy, but he was wheeling...

We started 25 minutes late after a group photo. This was my first ride with this group and my first ride after my bonk on Saturday. I knew I could do 20 miles standing on my head. The group took off very slowly and that was fine with me. There were a lot of young people 25-35 years old. They were impressed that I was out on my OLD '91 Paramount with fenders. One older guy commented that he couldn't believe the Paramount was my "beater" bike. He said that he would have been pissed off if I hadn't handled it so non-chalantly. I wasn't trying to impress anybody. I like to ride and this is one of my 3 bikes.

The small group I stayed with went at a very good pace. I'd say we were in the 16-19 mph pace. I followed cause I didn't know the route. About 5 miles into the ride a woman had a flat. I stopped to help and the rest of the guys waited ahead. My pump needs to be converted to presta and needed a wrench to do that, so we had to find another pump. (note to self - fix pump). I lent her my tire irons and another guy had a pump. She had previously worked as a mechanic so she could work quicker than I. She did fine. She couldn't get the pressure up in the tire tho. Finally it was sufficient.

We proceeded on and rode with a group of about 8 people that knew one another. Somewhere down the line someone realized that the cue sheet was incorrect and we had to backtrack to get on the right route. It was a good overall route and the heavy fog didn't create any problem. There weren't a lot of hills.

When we got back to the bike shop there were delicious fudge, cookies, pretzels and almonds to gorge on. Again I hadn't had breakfast and I paid the price. I need to remember to plan ahead in the morning.