Reger, Dana and I decided we would check out the Athens winter bike league ride today since it wasn’t going to rain and it will tomorrow so the AP ride is out. The website says it’s a 3+ hour ride around 20 mph avg. Lots of rules, serious ride.

It started out well; I forgot my power bars, my water (to drink in the car) and a towel in case we do get wet. Reger was running behind so we got a late start heading to Athens. We followed Joe’s GPS which isn’t always the best route, the wrong way down one way streets, in the wrong lane on the freeway, but we made it in time for the ride. It was supposed to be cloudy… no it was raining. Not just a little, everything was wet and it rained about half the ride. A giant turn out of maybe 15 people. The site says, there is a sag vehicle in case someone gets a flat. We’ll somebody crashed (behind us somewhere, didn’t see or hear it) and we all stopped and waited for them. I didn’t see the car so I guess it stopped. We stopped for a nature break… they left us. A few minutes later, about the 40 minute mark, Reger gets a flat tire. Did the car stop after he was yelling, flat tire! No. What the hell. I chased down Dana and talked to the driver. They didn’t care. Something about a dollar in the tip jar? We went back and picked up Joe to find our way back. Joe got another flat tire (glass in the tire). Change #2 in front a house with a dog (a boxer) running around an open yard… we moved down the road. Between the 3 of use we had 2 GPS units though there are no streets marked on it so it’s great if there are roads to find and they happen to go in the direction you want. Made a few detours on the way back. Also picked up a couple of riders who got dropped somewhere on the way back in the rain. We looked like we had just finished mountain biking, with mud and road grime everywhere.

Almost 2 hours of riding, 30 miles… oh boy. Coach Chris was there. Said this was in his top 10 list of worst rides ever but this was not the norm for the ride. Dana had to have a burrito for lunch so we drove around for 15 minutes .3 miles from where we were at to find 3 parking places. Lunch was good, and cheap (college town). The drive back was also a joy. The lights are a mess and construction made the 20 to 30 min. addition to the drive a real joy. Though I am venting, it was better than not going riding.