Fifty Plus (50+) - First Ride of the New Year

Well, this one was billed as "The Hangover Ride". It started at 9:00 am and was moderately paced and 30 miles long. The pace was pretty good for the whole ride and there were 11 of us on the ride. We stopped at a Starbucks out in the middle of nowhere since Starbuck's is ALWAYS open. Cup of coffee and an orange/cranberry scone and the ride back.

Then I did another 12 miles after everyone left so that I could start off the year with a 42 mile ride.

The conditions in the San Francisco Bay area were perfect today as long as you call riding in dry clear 42 degree weather perfect. Works for me.

Ours started at 8:30, ran 44.6 miles and I averaged 17.95 for the ride. Temps were in the upper 70's and the return leg of the ride was into a stiff breeze (~10mph) out of the south. A good time was had by all:)

Rode by myself. It was cold, clear 36 F with a 15 mph breeze. But I rode!:D

I got out about noon, waiting for it to warm up to 35, but not so long as to get home after the Rosebowl started. Just 20 miles alone, but it was good to get out. http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k87/tomfrady/IMG_3143.jpg Here's the most interesting thing I saw, a P-something at our little airport.
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k87/tomfrady/IMG_3151.jpgHere's a little pond with a colorful and active group of ducks, except the all flew away when I tried to get a little closer.

Happy New Year everyone.

Sunny, 52 degrees with 10-15 mph north wind. About half the loop into the wind.

MC rode our usual 11.2 mile loop, I added a few sections to get to 16.5 miles. Somehow the layers of clothing seemed to be almost perfect for today's conditions. Very little traffic and passed 3 or 4 other cyclists out on this beautiful day.

It's gonna be a good year for riding, I just know it is...:)

MOJO,

29.6 miles here in Okieland. 42F but no wind. We had the celebratory Anchor Steam Christmas 2006 Ale at the half way point. Great ride.

The airplane you saw is a civilian T-28 "Trojan." A great beast of a plane, but fun if you can put 60 gallons of av-gas in it every hour.

Tyson

I'm glad everyone's getting the new year off on the right foot. We had a 60 degree day that started very wet, then cleared off and got really gusty. I got out solo and rode 60.4 miles with 5,850 of ***. elev. gain and a 19.0 avg. (I love my Garmin.) Not bad for a January ride.

16 mile ride, cold,rail, 15-20 mph wind, 38degrees,Yea, it was great!

MOJO,

29.6 miles here in Okieland. 42F but no wind. We had the celebratory Anchor Steam Christmas 2006 Ale at the half way point. Great ride.

The airplane you saw is a civilian T-28 "Trojan." A great beast of a plane, but fun if you can put 60 gallons of av-gas in it every hour.

Tyson
Yea! Go Trojans. (See Rosebowl score)

17 mile ride here, 36 F and rain with 15-20 mph from the NW. brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

I rode 16 miles starting at 12:01 this morning. There were 8 in the group. Got lots of friendly honks and waves! No ride during the day; it was raining, which in the upper 30s is a Bad Thing(tm).

35 degrees 28 wind chill, & wet - no sun. Did 10 on the Trainer and half hr on weights.

A total of 11 members of my club, including my wife and son and another couple with their 4 children, came out for an easy ride around the airport this morning. We had planned to do two 5.5 mile laps, but since it started raining pretty hard as we started, we decided to cut the one lap we did short to 4 miles. Not much of a workout, but I was happy that we had a good group to show up at all.

Did 24 miles this morning with RCK. Started out at about 10:00am. The temp was between 35 and 40 degrees and the wind was blowing at about 15 mph with gusts to who knows what. Off to a decent start for the year. If the weather does not turn normal, we hope to get our first Irma's ride in for the year on Saturday. We'll see.

OT-I'm going to pick up a new tandem sometime this week. I'm looking forward to getting in a few miles with Mrs. Skipper. We hope to find ourselves bellied up to the counter at Irma's sometime this summer.

Happy New Year.

Myself and a friend from our local bike club did the Delta Century route. Starts in Lodi, CA it was foggy and mid thirties when we started. The first time I used my brakes the levers were covered withy ice. But eventually the fog burned off, then we only had to deal with bumpy roads, wind and being chased by dogs. But all in all it was a good day.

6 hours 36 minutes of ride time
100 miles covered
14.6 MPH average

I'm tired and I need a new seat.

I managed a 20 mile ride this morning in 41F weather with a bit of Seattle "sunshine". I tried to get out before the rain started, but after all this is Seattle and what should one expect. I feel good to have taken my first ride of the year.

Chilly mid-30's here, but sunny. Managed a quick 12 miles before the Rose Bowl game. My first cold weather ride ever . . . won't be my last.

Yes, just an absolutely bee-YOO-tee-ful day on the coast today.
I meant to get out on the bike but, alas, no go. Dang. really hope to break in those new shoes a little more. So I thought I'd hit the trainer but, no, nothing there either. Today is my last day off before I head back to the grind so I just *have* to get out for a few new year miles.

Not bad for a January ride.

:eek: not bad for a peak season group ride

I did a little over 64 miles, on a nice 71 degree south Florida day. But the way my route was arranged, about 22 miles was into a south head wind that kept getting stronger and stronger. My last 4 miles going home weren't into the wind, but the 12 before that were straight into a 15+ mph wind.

My goal was to start the year with my first metric, and I made it despite the nasty wind!

Annual New Year's day SFVBC club ride. Loop from CSUN (Northridge CA.) to Mt. Wilson. My door to door distance was 100.5 mi. and 9600 ft. of climbing. VERY windy here in LA, made it a definite challenge to stay on the road at times. If you watched the Rose Parade (or Rose Bowl game) on TV, Mount Wilson is the mountain peak to the north of Pasadena.

Happy New Year – My wife and I rode the tandem and decided to climb one of the steeper hills - Old La Honda (3.9 miles averaging 7.2% grade) to the top of Skyline Ridge. Skyline is the ridge that separates the eastern Peninsula from the bay and the Pacific Ocean and is on the San Andreus Fault. This was our first climb up Old La Honda and it was cool and very picturesque – narrow winding road set among large Red Wood trees. We enjoyed the climb, but the descent back down very fast and when we started to spin again, our legs were cold and it took time to warm up. The weather was sunny with the temperature around 63 degrees F. Our GPS recorded 5400 feet of elevation gained over 42.5 miles.

Here is a picture of our start/finish. In the middle of the body of water is the San Andreas fault and in the background is Skyline Ridge.

Friends came over and we headed out about 12:30. Mid 40's which is balmy given that we are in Northeast Ohio. Started to drizzle and then rain immediately but we decided to keep going. Did about 8 miles on the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath.

Felt good to start the year out with a ride.

Happy New Year!
I rode into work on a sunny, but unseasonable warm morning. Since all federal offices were closed, traffic was very light. It was a bit over five miles. It felt good to ride up the big hill with no trailer attached. It was a quiet ride, good for feflecting on the beginning of a new year.

Paul

Here are some pics of our "last ride of 06/first ride of 07"! We rode across the midnight hour in a cold, windy and wet but oh so fun ride. It took it's toll, though because I'm sick as a dog today!:p :eek:
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o260/TomStormcrowe/Cardinal%20Greenway%20and%20other%20rides/NewYearsEveNightride004.jpg

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o260/TomStormcrowe/Cardinal%20Greenway%20and%20other%20rides/NewYearsEveNightride002.jpg

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o260/TomStormcrowe/Cardinal%20Greenway%20and%20other%20rides/NewYearsEveNightride007.jpg

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o260/TomStormcrowe/Cardinal%20Greenway%20and%20other%20rides/NewYearsEveNightride015.jpg

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o260/TomStormcrowe/Cardinal%20Greenway%20and%20other%20rides/NewYearsEveNightride013.jpg

{cross-posted from the road forum**

I've been wanting to go up Mt. Diablo on New Year's Day for a couple of years now, but weather and events have so far been able to conspire against me. Not this year - the weather was 58'ish without clouds and wind, and I had nothing better to do. I conned the wife into going on the ride with me - she was a little more than hesitant as she didn't think she could, but my boyish good looks and overwhelming charm convinced her to give it a go.

I won't bore you with a blow-by-blow account of the climb, but the weather remained stellar and we had a very good time. It started to get a bit windy here and there, but nothing too bad. There was enough bike traffic to make me think someone was paying for folks to ride up there - must be a New Year's tradition with a lot of folks!

It was an 11 mile or so ascent mostly in the 5-8% grade range with a few flatter spots here and there. The last 4.5 miles saw short pitches in the 9-12% range, and the last 1000 feet starts at around 11% and towards the end gets to 17% with a brief visit to 20% (according to Garmin). These last miles used to be fairly treacherous descent, but new pavement has made it a lot of fun.

Anyway, I've attached some pics for your amusement. I have a 98GB Quicktime .MOV file of the first couple miles of the descent, CLICK HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR2LxUsFu-U) to view.

My wife on the beginning of the climb, looking down towards Danville on South Gate Road:

http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/4063/beginningofclimbcv7.jpg

Looking down, after about 3-4 miles of climbing:

http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/254/lookingdownmi3.jpg

Oak trees:

http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/1939/oaktreesgb4.jpg

My wife, climbing up towards the first ranger station and park entrance:

http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/8880/lynnetteclimbingys2.jpg

Close to the top, looking down towards San Ramon:

http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/9292/lookingdown2sx9.jpg

My wife at the top, just cresting the last 1000' of 17% grade

http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/9830/lynnettesummiting2nn5.jpg

Proof - the top!!!:

http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/2774/lynnetteattop1ly6.jpg

On the way down:

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/7862/goingdownsj8.jpg