Baby's First Group Ride

Today I participated in my first group cycling ride ever. Looking for something different than just riding the Arlington Loop by myself, I sought out a group ride through Potomac Pedalers and wound up riding the Arlington Loop with a bunch of other people.

Unfortunately, I'm a slow rider and so am limited to the slower organized rides. Such rides draw geezers and casual cyclists. I showed up  and - surprise! - it was mostly a bunch of alter kocker guys, mixed with a few casual riders on hybrid bikes. One guy immediately launched into warning us to be careful out on the trail for dogs and children because they do their best to jump in front of cyclists and cause accidents.

And there you have it: the cyclist mentality. There are two types of people in the world: cyclists, and people who are in the way of cyclists. Thank you for that piece of advice, Mr. Cyclist, and may I compliment you on how your tight cycling jersey highlights your enormous gut?

There were some nice people on the ride too, young and old. Most folks were kitted out in cycling gear. I was defiantly wearing a cotton t-shirt, though I was wearing bike shorts (not the skin-tight Spandex kind), shoes and gloves. I got to wondering - if I want to ride with other people, am I going to have to start dressing in the cyclist garb I hate just to fit in?

We did the loop clockwise, opposite the way I usually do it, with THREE rest stops - one where the W&OD meets the Custis trail, one at Spout Run, and a third at Gravely Point.

At the very end of the ride, I happened to be riding second, just behind the leader, or "point" person. As the group crossed Arlington Mill Dr. the leader stopped in the middle of the street to block traffic so the whole group could get across (cyclists have the right of way over everyone else and all traffic signals, because, well, because all cyclists are ubermentschen). I kept riding, heading back to our starting point at the Shirlington Library, about another three blocks. When I got there I turned around and saw ... no one. I really don't know what happened to the group. Some folks were going out to luch afterwards at Cap City Brewery. Perhaps the whole rest of the group stopped there. Or maybe they just split up and went back to their cars. Or were abducted by aliens. Well, my first ride went out with a whimper, but it was still fun. I'll do another. One of the riders on the trip mentioned a casual cyclists Meetup - I'll have to check that out too.