Ride Report: Bike DC 2010

After volunteering for Bike DC on Friday and encouraging hundreds of people to come out for Sunday's ride, I felt obligated to ignore the rain and head-out at 6:55 a.m. for the Bike DC start-line. Mark begged-off due to the rain, so it was just me and my trusty 'cross bike. Actually, Mark insisted I take the cyclocross bike and not the road bike because: it has super-brakes (a defining attribute of 'cross bikes) and I had the 32mm knobby tires on (9mm wider than my road bike tires).

Bike DC was great! The start-line showcased the new bike lanes on Pennsylvania Avenue, just east of the White House. Despite the light rain, people were excited for the ride. I also enjoyed the ingenuity of families participating in bike DC--bike trailers, kids on tandem/tag-along bikes, one Dad pulled a kid on a tag-along bike and a trailer was attached to the rear wheel of the tag-along and 2 kids were in the trailer. I wonder if he did the uphill section of the GW parkway?



The rain didn't last too long (maybe 20 minutes into the ride) but they grey skies stuck around. Thankfully, I had my yellow lens sunglasses, which made everything seem brighter and prettier! Compare:

My favorite part of the ride was the stretch up the George Washington Parkway, from the Key Bridge to the second look-out point. I had picked my way up to the "fast" group by this point and pretty much felt like I was kicking butt up the hill. Despite my knobby tires. Oh, the mountain bike cassette helped, too. I passed several tri bikes that were weaving left to right as riders negotiated the long uphill stretch without adequate gearing. When the police escort and lead cyclist passed me (he had U-turned), I realized I was the lead woman!!! Yep, with Knobby tires!

My next favorite part of the ride was the Air Force Memorial, which, despite it being located less than 2 miles from my house, I'd never seen up-close. I stopped and took pictures and will be sure to take future house-guests there. Beautiful views and you're sandwiched between Arlington Cemetery and the Pentagon. 

Heading south (it is cool to have 5 lanes of a highway to yourself, when you're on a bike), I headed towards the finish line festival in Cystal City. I grabbed a banana and a muffin and took-in the "bike museum". 

Sadly, the bike museum omitted an important invention in the development of the bicycle--pedals, invented by my great-great-?-grandfather, Kirkpatrick MacMillan in Dumfries, Scotland (where Dad, sister and family still live). The museum goes straight from the non-pedal "scooter" to the high-wheel. Anyway, at least YOU now know! 

Here's my GPS route of Bike DC (and yes, the place with the "as the crow flies" straight line is when I forgot to turn my GPS back on after leaving the Air Force Monument). I'd highly recommend the ride, it was a lot of fun. Next year, I'm hoping for sunshine and Mark's company!