MAMILs are an international plague.

This, from the Daily Mail (in the UK). The article is spot on. The only thing about it which makes me sad is that the "middle-aged" people pictured in it look to be fifteen years younger than I am. If they're middle-aged, what does that make me??

Please Don't Answer.

Speaking of old men riding, last weekend my sixty-something friend Chris and I did a nice loop between Cape Henlopen State Park and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. He initially dressed in full MAMIL regalia - loud orange jersey, matching socks, and black Lycra shorts. When he saw that I was dressed in baggy bikes shorts and a regular t-shirt he ran back into his bedroom and changed out of the orange jersey and socks. A small victory for the normally-clothed! Chris did admit that he feels a little self-conscious about the way his belly looks when he wears tight-fitting jerseys. Truth be told, he's in really good shape for a guy in his mid-sixties and has nothing to worry about - particularly in comparison to a lot of other MAMILs I've seen out on the road.

Chris is also an all-out roadie. When I bought my gravel bike, with its wide, grippy tires, he gave me a hard time about how slow I was going to be for road rides. So when I went to visit him this weekend I made sure to show up with skinny roadie tires on my bike. And then he grabbed his fat tire hybrid and took me on a route made up primarily of packed gravel trails. 😒

Here's the Strava of the ride.