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Bringing Up the Rear

Yesterday I rode the Lynsky to work. For one thing, I have broken yet another spoke on the beater bike. Also, it was my intention to check out the infamous Freshbikes Tuesday night ride.

I started my day with a nice discovery. I wasn't thrilled with the idea of leaving my bike outside all day and so I went down to the garage in search of a place to lock up my bike - a pipe or something I could lock to. Well, I was thrilled to discover that my building actually has a bike storage cage - in fact, there's two! I didn't have to leave my nice bike out front, and I'll no longer have to chat with the homeless man who spends his evenings in the vestibule next to the outside bike racks.

After work I saddled up and rode the block over to Freshbikes. As regular readers of this blog know (assuming there are any), I'm no fan of cute little bike outfits. I was recently thrilled to learn two biking terms:

Lycra Lout - a term describing the poorly behaved, race-clad biker set, and

MAMIL - an acronym for Middle Aged Men in Lycra

If terms like this exist then clearly I am not alone among the general population in my feelings about bikey fashion, but I sure wasn't going to find anyone who felt that way in this crowd. It was like unto a Lycra Lout fashion show! I was one of the few wearing a regular t-shirt rather than a jersey and also one of the few wearing baggies rather than tight-fitting Spandex shorts. Most of the bikes there were road or racing. I didn't see anyone else on a gravel grinder. A few adventurous souls showed up on MTBs or hybrids.
Waiting for the ride to Start

Anyway, the first Tuesday of the month is the big ride, with police escort through this intersections and food afterwards. I took off with the group (the ride started a few minutes late, in part because of thunder) but quickly fell towards the back. A couple of miles in I was far enough back that I lost the police escort. The group overall got pretty spread out and I was happy that I had taken a look at the route beforehand. I generally had some other cyclists in sight, but it would have been easy to miss a turn.

The ride went through familiar territory including, I'm happy to say, part of the route I used to drive home from Shady Grove. So much nicer to be biking it!

After the ride there was food from Baja Fresh at the little park adjacent to the bike store. Tacos! I chatted a little bit with another rider, who I had also talked with before the ride. Most of the Lycra Louts were busy with their own groups and so weren't too friendly. I ate by myself, then headed up to the office to pick up my backpack, lock and lights. I couldn't resist checking email and wound up working for a bit and chatting with my boss - who was still there at 8 PM.
Dinner Afterwards. Auughh - way too many pretty outfits!

Then, a quick ride home in the dusk. I think I need brighter lights. I'm sure I could be seen, but my headlamp doesn't really illuminate the road ahead very well.

In summary, three miles to work, 16 miles on the Freshbikes ride, and finally three miles home.

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Location: Virginia Square, Arlington, VA, USA

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