6/14 Saturday Ride

It looks like we'll be hoping the rain stays away. If the weather gods are with us, I thought we'd try the Westbrook route this week, but I could be talked into the Cape loop if people prefer. Drop an email or leave a comment with your druthers.

6/7 Saturday Ride

We need a leader for this week's ride. If you are willing to play the part, please leave a comment or drop me an email. Assuming we'll have a leader, we will plan to leave the shop at 8:00.

The planned route will be our Freeport loop (Ride route), but since the weather will be nice, people should fee free to plan on heading up to Brunswick if they want some extra miles (Ride route).

And in other news...

It is now, officially, legal to ride in the lane on the Pacific Coast Highway. Time to plan that vacation:

People of the State of California v. G$

Last fall a movement began. A handful of riders in the South Bay stopped playing gutter bunny on Pacific Coast Highway and took their rightful place in the lane... At its height Big Orange was towing 70 to 80 riders in an orderly 2×2 formation down the best bike lane in America: the right-hand lane of PCH.

And then the trouble began...

http://pvcycling.wordpress.com/2014/05/29/people-of-the-state-of-california-v-g/

5/31 Saturday Ride

This week we are looking to do a nice casual ride after last weekend's Memorial Day Ride as we head out through Falmouth, Cumberland and Yarmouth (Ride route). We'll leave the shop at 8:00.

Next weekend (6/7), we are looking for a leader, so please let us know if you would be interested in helping out.

5/24 Saturday Ride

This weekend, the club has its annual CCCP Memorial Day Ride. This is a great ride in a gorgeous part of the world and with sunny skies and warm temps forecast for the area it should be a great event. If you are planning to ride, please drop Kris an email so he has a general sense of the head count.

For the Saturday ride we will plan to leave the shop at 8:00 for our Mountain Rd loop since it is relatively short and includes a touch of climbing (Ride route).

5/18 Ride

It looks like we have a leader volunteer (thank you, Paul) and the weather actually looks pretty decent for tomorrow, so we will plan to ride.

There are some who can't commit to 50+ miles on a short-notice Sunday ride, so we will plan on doing the Freeport/Brunswick ride since it allows a shorter ride for those who need to get back. Plus, these routes are familiar to all, which makes the job of "leading" a bit easier.

The shorter loop will be the Freeport ride and the longer loop will head up toward Brunswick. Plan to leave the shop around 8:00.

5/17 or 5/18 Ride

I have been dragging my feet on this post, hoping that tomorrow wouldn't be a washout. But, it looks like there is little sense holding out hope. Although Saturday looks to be rained out, there is a possibility that Sunday could stay reactively dry in the morning. The hitch there is that Bron can't ride on Sunday and neither can I.

Since the CCCP Memorial day Ride is just about a week away at this point, we will throw it out to the group to decide what you want to do. Use the comments to let us know whether you want to ride in the rain on Saturday or try for Sunday. If you want to ride Sunday, we are going to need a volunteer to act as the leader.

As for a route, we were thinking that either the Brunswick ride or the Gloucester Hill ride would be a good way to get in a bit of climbing and distance in advance of next weekend's ride.

As a bit of an aside, I'll hop up on the soapbox for a second and say a thing or two about group riding in the rain. Whenever we ride as a group, it is important that we are aware of the fact that the decisions we make as individuals impact the group as a whole. In the rain, where visibility is reduced, handling is compromised and reactions can be degraded from cold, it is especially important that we think about how our riding impacts everyone else. Please be vigilant when things get wet and if you are on the front of the group in the rain, try to make sure that you are riding in a way that keeps everyone behind you safe. If you are in the pack, please be predictable and leave a little extra space to allow for reduced reactions and reduced braking.

Please use the comments to let us know what you want to do this weekend and whether you are willing to act as the leader.

5/10 Saturday Ride

Despite the threat of some wetness, we are going to push forward with our initial plan and try to give people the option to add some more miles this week. The ride will leave the shop at the usual 8:00.

The shorter ride will be our standard trip up to Freeport (Ride route). As we often do, once the ride hits S. Freeport Rd., we will split and folks looking to add some miles can head on up to Brunswick (Ride route).

A reminder that Memorial Day is quickly approaching and with it comes the CCCP Memorial Day Ride. If you're looking for encouragement, try not to look at the profile of Hurricane and just remind yourself that it's a great event in a beautiful place to ride.

5/3 Saturday Ride

After a late start to the season, it is becoming painfully obvious that Memorial Day doesn't come any later when winter overstays its welcome. There isn't much time to add mileage before the annual Memorial Day Ride, but we're going to try.

This week will have one route as we head out to Pineland (Ride route). While there won't technically be a short loop this week, those looking to add a few extra miles and a few hills, there is the option to add Gloucester Hill. We'll leave from the shop at the usual 8:00.

Looking forward to next weekend, we will have two routes. The shorter loop will be our standard Freeport loop (Ride route), while the longer route will head up toward Brunswick (Ride route).

4/26 Saturday Ride

This weekend, it looks like we'll may just get lucky and miss the rain (hopefully that sentence didn't doom us to a downpour). As usual, we'll leave the shop at 8:00 and this week we will head out an do a somewhat familiar Range Rd. route backwards (Ride route).

4/19 Saturday Ride

This week the ride is going head over toward Freeport on one of our more familiar tracks (Ride route). Meet at the shop at 8:00.

4/12 Saturday Ride

The weather looks to be as fine as we've had so far, so let's get out there. I was thinking of a variation of this ride Ride Map, perhaps going up our old friend Mountain Road, instead of down, when we're not sure they've cleared the sand yet. We should rise from 40 to 50 degrees during the ride, so bring layers yo can peel. See you at 8:00!

4/6 SUNDAY Ride

Well, it's April. In some parts of the country that means warm temps and sunny skies. If only Maine were so predictable. Tomorrow looks to be wet and a bit chilly, while Sunday looks to be much nicer, although still on the chilly side.

Given the forecast and the fact that this is the first ride of the season, we are going to move the ride to Sunday morning. Moving to Sunday means that we have some overlap with the Sunday Randonneur ride that leaves from the shop, but we figure we'll just embrace our Sunday friends and plan to leave the shop at the same time they do — 8:30 am.

Bron is planning to lead the familiar and relatively short loop around Tuttle and Greely (Ride Route). We're not sure where the Sunday ride is planning to go, but it will likely provide an alternative to our planned route.

Welcome to the 2014 season!

Season Start - April 5?

Thanks for the feedback on the upcoming year. If anyone else has additional comments, please let us know.

When should we start riding? The weather doesn't look to be too good in the foreseeable future, and Bron and I are pretty tied up for the rest of the month, so we are tentatively thinking of starting April 5.

If there are nice days between now and you would like to get a group together, feel free to use the comments here or drop me an email asking me to post something.

Soliciting Input for the 2014 Saturday Rides

It's almost daylight savings time, which means spring can't be far behind. As we slip slowly toward warmer weather (I think), we're looking for your thoughts on the Saturday ride as we try to shape the ride for the 2014 season.

Some of the areas we would love you to weigh in on are:

• Additional leaders:

If you are interested and willing in acting as a leader please let us.

• Ride Routes:

We're exploring the idea of creating a set of standard routes (3-5) to help simplify the job of leading and to add a little more predictability to the ride. Variability has been the hallmark of the ride over the past few years, and we see no reason to move away from that entirely. But we would like feedback on the idea of paring back our ride variability.

• A/B Groups:

Along the line of the consistent routes, we are curious whether there is any interest in creating A/B splits. Making this a reality would require some additional leaders.

Training Goals:

In most years we stretch the rides to add length and prepare for various events, such as Memorial Day. Is there still interest in this?

• General Suggestions:

If you have any other suggestions concerning the ride, please let us know.

Given that winter does't appear likely to release its grip on us for a few more weeks, we were also thinking that it might be fun for us to meet over breakfast some Saturday morning this month if people are interested. March 15 seemed to be one option that is likely not going to be a good riding day. If you have any idea for a place to meet up, let us know.

As always, you can use the comments section of this post to respond or send us an email.