I got a chance to ride with my friend George Behr. George and I have known each other for about 5 years now, through church and men's group. He is brand new to cycling, which made yesterday's ride fun. You remember fun on a bicycle, right? We started out with a C+ Level group that was supposed to ride 13-15 miles per hour.
I say supposed to because they didn't. Not exactly, anyway. They were AVERAGING 14...up the side of one of the mountains out here. For a first-time rider, it was NOT the place to be: a pack of testosterone-laden guys looking to impress each other because they can't hack it with the B Level riders. Toughen up, move to the next level and suffer a little to get better, fellas. It works. Honestly.
So George and I broke off from those idjucts and went our own way. I took him down along the Yellow Breeches, a world-class trout stream with a low overhanging tree canopy covering the road-it's cool, quiet and smooth, an ideal road for a beginning rider. It was beautiful. We eased up so we could talk about kids, cycling and life in general. It's actually renewing to be out with a complete newbie because it takes me back to when I was there, trying to figure out things like stopping, starting and not dying while clipping into and out of pedals (Hint: Unclip BEFORE you NEED to unclip). We then noodled up through some rolling hills and cornfields and eased into the high school parking lot for a 21 mile jaunt together.
The cool thing is that George said he was going to start making it a ritual, already planning his next rides. Me? I sat back and listened like a junkie that just introduced someone to the crack that I am selling. Welcome to the addiction, George. I think you're going to love it.
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