Introductions - Greetings from Northern Virginia

Just started riding again in June after being off the bike for a few years. I do most of my riding on the W&OD (after 1,300 miles I'm getting a little burned out on it). I commute to work (from Ashburn to Herndon) occaisionally.

I was all set for the 50 mile Tour of Hope in DC on Oct 8th - too bad about the tropical storm!

Any local (road bike) events coming up?

Welcome.

Consider joing Potomac Peddlers. Here's the link:

www.bikepptc.org

The Patomic Peddlers club is doing a 20 mile round trip ride on the 29th starting at Best Buns in Shirlington. It starts at 11am. The woman, Theresa, who runs that ride said she leads a ride the last Saturday of every month. I'd go, except I have a fitness certification workshop that day all dang day. :mad: But you should certainly go and meet great people and have some fun with a fun ride. Afterwards, they hook up for coffee and bagals at the Best Buns shop.

Koffee

Welcome to the forums GoBlue :beer:

I pedaled many miles on the W & OD, before moving away from NoVa. I hear that their have been many improvements to the trail over the years, but I'm sure it does get old after 1300 miles of seeing the same thing :D . There seems to be a lot of riders from nova on bikeforums.net, and i'm sure you'll like it here.

Too bad you didn't post last week.
WABA had the 50 State ride last Saturday (Oct 15). Hits all 50 state named streets in DC. 60 some miles. Also had a shorter version, the 13 Colony ride.
And Baltimore did the Tour du Port ride yesterday.

Potomac Pedalers is a good club. They do several rides at different levels each weekend. Their website posts the schedule for the month. Try a couple and see how you like them.
(On October 9 the PPTC was doing rides starting at Loudon County High School, just down the road from you.)

What kind of pace do you like to ride?

Not to hijack the thread, but is the W & OD trail lit during the evening for late evening or early morning riding? I may have to do that, but of course, if it's not lit, I won't bother.

Koffee

The stretch along I-66 from East Falls Church to Bon Air has lights along it. And the first couple of miles out of Shirlington.
I think that most of the rest of the W&OD does not.
I think the Custis Trail has lights.

Hmmmm... I guess I will not be taking that trail then, since I would need lighting from mile 1 until at least mile 12.

Koffee

Wow - thanks for the warm welcome!

Looks like there is a lot of action at Potomac Peddlers - thanks for the link. Checking out their chart I would say I'm a solid "B" rider.