Challenging Breakfast Ride

This Ride: 24.6 miles
Month: 440.6 miles
2011: 440.6 miles
Cumulative Total: 6,560.3 miles

Wednesday evening, our area was hit with 8 inches of heavy, wet snow.  Many in our community are without power this morning, and I’m without cable tv and internet.  The traffic light near my house remains dark.  Main roads are dry and clear.  Side streets range from dry to wet to snow packed.  Temperature this morning was 31°F.  Into this, Dan, Bryan, Mike & I rode the regular breakfast ride into Annapolis.

We were hyper vigilant on the dark ride to Annapolis.  Conversation was kept to a minimum, mainly calling out ice patches and other hazards.   We didn’t look so much like a peloton as we did a straggly group of riders.  Our spacing was generous, convinced that if the rider in front of us went down, we would be able to avoid running over them.  Mike rode with studded tires, the rest of us didn’t have that advantage.  We stayed on the modified winter route.  I reconnoitered part of the route yesterday and determined then that Old County Road was not safe.  We also avoided all parts of the trail, even though some of it had been plowed.

Breakfast was good at Chick & Ruth’s, and once again we were the object of much conversation … those crazy guys riding bikes in this weather!

The return home in daylight was easier, although we were on Highway 2 nearly all the way.

I didn’t extend my ride.