Back in the Saddle

I had my doubts that it would happen, but tonight the Bow Cyclist Club had its first ride of 2020. It went really well, with over 50 people organized into groups of 10 or fewer.

I was promoted this year to Ride Director, which was nice but when you have a club with no rides (except virtual), there’s not a lot to it. But when the ABA held a meeting last week to announce that cycling was allowed to start up and that there were lots of rules to observe in order to keep people from spreading COVID-19, the heat was on.

In the end, through working with Susan and Mark, and having virtual meetings with the ride leaders, we were on the same page on how we were going to handle the rides. Especially the first one: the weather was beautiful and there were a lot of club members who were itching to go.

I was the “traffic cop” at the ride tonight, meeting everybody and assigning them to groups. The ride leaders for the different levels (A, B and C) were collecting the riders I sent their way and when they reached 10, they were off and riding. Eventually, I looked up and there were no more riders waiting to be distributed, and I joined in on the last group: Wing’s B group. The ride went well, except for one lady breaking her chain. Wing and I tried to repair it roadside, but failed. She and her friend elected to limp back to the store.