FLCC> Tuesday night success!

[Daniel Kidney]

The weather couldn't have been better. My timing could have been, but in
retrospect missing my ride and spending more time on the bike was a good
thing. Getting to the parking lot at 6:12 worked out just fine too; the
whole (sizable) group was still there which presumably means there was some
lively verbal instruction given beforehand, or some lively socializing, or
most likely both. I considered going out with some of the groups that
claimed intentions of riding briskly (leaving within seconds of my arrival),
but in consideration of my own comments last night, and at the calls of
LiLynn and Sara to stay and chat... I ended up going out with the last group
which, once again, turned out for the better (I wasn't there to see that the
others were worse... but it turned out well in any case).

We rode out in a good size bunch but arriving at Stevenson Rd we split up
into some small learning groups. Don and myself went out with four women:
Ruth, Christine, Becky (I believe) and, Blue Shirt (sorry!). Don gave an
overview of our intentions (to pace line) and we took off out Ellis Hollow
Creek, cutting back to Thomas, and finishing up Snyder Hill. Although many
assume I'm in great shape from my long journey (which might be true to some
extent, although I certainly wasn't racing), one thing I haven't been doing
for the past 18 months is riding in a group. I definitely need to re-adapt
to the practice, but I can gladly say that my little group was a great
success! The four women, from what I could tell, had ridden a fair bit, but
not in groups before. I tried to dole out useful advice and simultaneously
not forget my own words. Don kept us all together with a nice 'program' (it
seemed as if he had made a lesson plan). In the end though, I presume that
it was our 'students' who made things run so smoothly. It was a very nice
sized group and we managed to nicely balance socializing and practicing our
pace line. All our students learned very quickly (much more so than I did a
few years back at my first Tuesday night experience) and we had a very
smooth fun ride, thanks! LiLynn topped everything off by loaning me a helmet
(indefinitely?) to replace my rather 'scraggly' (and definitely
USCF-illegal) one while I "purchase" another (the question is will she still
remember it was hers next week, the following week, next year??).

If folks from my group happen to be reading this I know at least some of you
asked about the Thursday Slow rides and I didn't know where they were
meeting this year. If you look back a few days on the listserv you can find
a little conversation about last week's ride which apparently went off quite
nicely. The meeting time is 5:30 and the place is on the west side of the
lake at what is called " Cayuga Professional Center Medical/Dental Plaza"
(near the hospital), the exact location of which is shown on this map:
http://flcycling.org/flcc/maps/locations/towesthill.shtml
I highly encourage anyone to go as I know that it's populated with wonderful
folks; I should really attend but it seems that every Thursday there is
meeting on sustainability or something else of significant interest to me.
In a couple weeks though I'll start ignoring the meetings.

Some plans were quickly laid out for a slideshow; the tentative location is
LiLynn's house. The sooner we set the date the fewer photos I will have time
to *remove* from the full line up (of about 3000). Looking forward to seeing
you all at LiLynn's! (I'll try to make it on time next week too).

Cheers

Daniel
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