I will, so there...
We had a good turnout of local folks and associated friends - lets see, maybe 11 or so? Some actual on topic bicycles and some definite keepers of the flame, as well as a few token modern bikes. Lets see, Roman's very original blue Pogliaghi, Barbara's red De Rosa, which she bought new in 1983, Philip's red De Rosa, which was a 1993, but just got built up with modern parts and was on it's maiden voyage, Nick's perfect pearl yellow Nagasawa, Taz's spiffy blue and white Davidson, a gentleman riding an early 80's Trek - had to be a 520 or a 610, in blue, Ray's red-white-blue fade Waterford, my blue and white Montelatici and Philip's friends with a very modern fat tube white Klein and a space age red Bianchi. There were a couple of ladies on more modern bikes who either just showed up when we did, or were riding with us, I wasn't sure. No one had the new Dura Ace 10, <g>, which was fine, but I heard a quote from one of Philip's friends, attributed to Jobst Brandt that the crankset looks like a bathing beauty without a navel!
Our fearless organizer, Nick picked a really nice country loop with both a 27 and 30 mile options, south of the Atlanta airport. I was pleased not to be chased by any dogs and since there was a fair amount of cycling traffic on the road, the motorists were well behaved - a real treat! Road surface was nice, with a decent shoulder and no dreaded rumblestrips. The weather was a completely cooperative, balmy autumn in Georgia kinda day. Started out fairly foggy and damp, but improved rapidly. Lots of horses, some being ridden on the side of the road, some in fields looking at us. No other interesting wildlife, that I saw. Yes, there were hills, but the rolling kind of Georgia creek ones, so they were short and over with pretty quickly. I can say that riding intervals 3 days a week on the trainer is not enough, so I better start doing longer intervals if I'm going to be stronger in the hills around here.
All and all a wonderful day with good company!
Ann Phillips, reporting from Decatur GA where it supposed to rain like heck on my day off on Tuesday.