Saturday, 31st October 2009

55.4 miles, total climb 3,164.9ft, average speed 12.8mph

As the weeks and then the months roll by hurtling us riders closer and closer to the vicious east coast winter, it’s one of life’s little victories to look at the weather report during the week and see the rare promise of rideable weather coming up at the weekend.

And so it was this weekend, which was just as well as we’d planned this ride to spend time with our wonderful friend Vero whose birthday it was and who can always be counted on for a friendly smile and encouraging words.

The girl herself is forever downplaying her riding ability which is laughable when you consider how strong a rider she actually is.  Always one for complimenting others, it’s time she realised her own strength.

The original idea was to make our way to Nyack where we’d find a nice diner to indulge in some satisfying pancakes.  The route out, via Piermont was to be filled with gorgeous autumn views with the tree’s at the peak of their fall colours and of course some climbs, all important for a complete bike ride.

After all nearly getting blown off our bikes on George’s bridge, we decided the sensible thing to do would be to shorten the ride and have Piermont as our destination, which I was initially disappointed by as bluntly I need the exercise but the wind, which didn’t really go away the whole day, soon made me realise we’d made the right decision.

The ride itself was spectacular and the photographs don’t really do any justice to the colours and the views in general.  It really was one of those days that reminded me why I love cycling so much.  I really hope that we have a mild winter so I can keep going until it gets warm again in the spring.  We’ll see.

Anyway, it was a joy to share this day with old pals Vero, Joe and Alan and lovely to ride again with Lucia who I hope I’ll be able to keep up with so we can ride together more.  Looking forward also to riding again with LeAnne and Renee.