A friend and I drove to Front Royal, VA to do a new year's day ride on Skyline Drive. About 10 miles from home I suddenly realized I had left my shoes at home, so we made a u-turn and went back for them. So much for an 'early' start... we had hoped to be riding by 10 or so in the morning-- letting the sun 'warm' the day a bit. As it was, we didn't start riding until 11, and if the day warmed up, I didn't notice. It was in the mid 20's... my bottles froze (although the gatorade was more of a slushy). We ended up riding 46 miles. It was a gorgeous day, blue sky, visibility was incredible-- more than usual--and traffic was sparse. We did see one other biker on the return half of the ride. I was adequately dressed for the weather, but tended to overheat on the long climbs, and to freeze on the long descents. What little was flat and 'false flat' was pretty good. Of course neither one of us brought a camera

This was a day of firsts... yesterday I bought a used SARIS roof rack on craigslist, and used it to transport our bikes to the start. The bike I rode was the one I bought for $200 on craigslist over Thanksgiving-- it was the first 'non-commute' ride on the bike. It performed really well, but I have to move the seat back about an inch... I didn't realize how the seat position on the bike was affecting my climbing while seated. I came very close to sliding off the seat. I did a lot fo the climbing standing.

All in all, a great start to the New Year--

I hope everyone has a healthy and happy 2009-

train safe--