First Airport Ride of the 2010/2011 Winter Season

It's that time of year. Time for some good old huffin' and puffin' on the roads south of Atlanta. In spandex. With a bunch of dudes and some ladies. That's right... it's time for the Airport Ride!

A few days ago weather.com had me scared about 29 degree start temps but in the end we had a moderate 45-53 degree range to work our magic within. Big groups kept cresting the bridge on Peters Street just before 10am. By the start we had more than 4,000 cyclists in attendance. Give or take 3,900. (I have no idea how many people there were... but it was a big group.)

First few miles were chilly. I got up near the front to warm up but that was just silly and I ended up working too hard. Mr. Linenberg waxed his tri bike and was laying down the law off the front with a small group.

After the nature break at 11 mi I tried to settle into the group but there was a bunch of sketch riding happening so I abandoned the pack for the open road up front. Which means I ended up working too hard. Which is just silly.

At the split I went for the long loop and the ride got more organized. But there were a lot of attacks and it was hard to "sit in" at all. One dick clown took a left turn on a blind sweeping corner in the oncoming lane. And a car showed up to the party. I'm not taking credit for saving his life but if I hadn't realized what was going on and gotten out of the way he would have at the very least collided with me and at the very worst died a horrific death. I accept credit cards.

Finally we made it to hwy 29 and things got logical. Paceline. Rotate in or sit back. I was lovin' it. Marc made his way to the front for some sprint action.

Before I knew it we were back on Peters St. 2:36-ish had elapsed and the 2010/2011 Airport Ride season was officially in swing.

Marc, Dana, James, Mark & Konnie (a single entity and comma-ed appropriately), the guy with the HD Hero camera (hey, post a link to the facebook page if you get a chance)... and a ton of other people. Good to see everybody. With my non-season season I'm not burned out and am feeling interested in jumping into more than the usual 2-3 Airport Rides that my life usually permits.

Next week... see you out there!