January 09, 2005
Saddle Time
I had originally hoped to join Shey's ride from the International Horse Park in Conyers this morning, but the wedding reception last night went too late (those Jewish families really know how to party) and I couldn't make it to the early AM start.
Doug, Theron and I headed out on the 55+ mile "Walton County Loop" shortly after 11 AM. It was mostly a steady pace with Theron doing more than a few long pulls at the front. We made it around the loop and I headed over to Dacula to meet up with the Apalachee Cycle group ride.
The AC group had about 18 riders today. The shop owner, Bruce said that's the most they've ever had show up, probably due to the warm weather. This group was really nice but strictly tourist, no racer-types (except for Wojtek who was looking for a recovery ride after yesterday's WBL ride). This type of group is actually harder to ride with because of the erratic tempos and unpredictable nature. It seemed like we stopped a dozen times to regroup and there was rarely any hint of any structured group riding skills. We all had fun, pedaled about 35 miles and no one got hurt so that's a good thing.
I had to stop my bike computer several times while we waited for the stragglers to regroup, inevitably I forgot to turn it back on once and didn't record several miles of this ride which totaled a little bit over 90 miles. I even got a little bit of a suntan, in January, cycling for more than 5 hours today.
