1. It would be really hard to ride the bike the 100 miles to my summer house after work on Friday.

2. Sometimes I feel dumb for doing this, but on any given "riding" day, I have a choice of spending the first hour riding through choking diesel exhaust, double-parked cars, and several housing projects, or spending the first hour of my ride on low-volume, almost rural, tree-lined roads with several good climbs, after driving 20 or 30 miles north. The local racer boys would never consider doing anything other than riding to the country. But I'm not a racer boy, and really have no real intention of becoming one. If that offends you, too damn bad.