The Anatomy of a Ride, in Pictures (with a cameo from a surprise guest!)
Noble and I love hearing from all of our friends and family who have followed us in our biking adventures and are curious about our rides. “How is training going?” they ask, inquiring about our path to Pelotonia’s 180 miles (if you are new to our journey, read this first). “How many miles did you ride this week?” is another frequent question. It’s great to have so many supporters — many of whom do not ride — genuinely curious about our efforts.
This Saturday, we rode in a local ride, the Al Pless Memorial Bike Ride, which presented a great opportunity to share a semi-typical ride with you. Athens, Georgia has a fantastic cycling community and the weather was perfect, so here’s a glimpse into Saturday’s adventure!
Prepping for the ride: Before we leave home, there’s some basic planning involved. We have to prepare for hydration, food, and bike safety. We can easily burn over 2,000 calories on a ride, so you have to keep eating throughout the ride, even if you don’t feel hungry.
Arriving at the ride: As I mentioned, Athens, GA has a very active cycling community year-round, and it’s great for riders of all abilities. Saturday’s ride would leave from the Jittery Joe’s roaster, which is about 2 miles from our house. Jittery Joe’s is a huge supporter of cycling, and also one of our team sponsors for Pelotonia! Once we arrived, we checked in, stretched, and said hello to Dr. Ken Sherman, who is pretty much the godfather of Athens’ charity bike rides. He’s also been a great resource for us in planning for Pelotonia.
Starting the ride: Just after 9:00 a.m., we gathered as a group and heard some words from friends of Al Pless, who was a valuable member of the cycling community in Athens before his death three years ago. Two of the riders even rode on Al’s bikes, which was pretty awesome (more on that later). After they spoke, Ken filled us in on logistics regarding the route, and then we were off!
The route: Saturday’s route headed eastward from Athens, taking us through Winterville, then across lots of winding and hilly country roads and tiny country towns. It was a perfect day in terms of weather and scenery — we couldn’t have asked for a better ride, aside from some heavy wind gusts along the way.
SAG stops: SAG stops are key on organized rides! SAG stands for “support and gear” or “support and grub,” supposedly. Regardless, SAG stops provide us a much-needed break every 15–20 miles where we can refill our water, eat a snack (PB&J!), and use the facilities. Saturday’s stops were in Winterville, Beaverdam, and Devils Pond (I told you they were small towns!).
We also had several SAG vehicles along the route, which drive around and monitor the ride, just to make sure we don’t have any mechanical or health issues requiring assistance. Thanks to Georgia Cycle Sport — another one of our Pelotonia sponsors — for providing SAG support on our ride.
Brief celebrity cameo: At our first SAG stop in Winterville, I noticed a familiar face riding with us, but tried not to be too obnoxious about it — it was Kishi Bashi! If you don’t know “K” (as he was introduced to us), he’s a phenomenal musician who is a former member of Of Montreal, has performed on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts, KEXP (our favorite radio station!), and is one of this year’s headliners for AthFest. More importantly, his music has gotten me through many long days of studying for comprehensive exams and writing my dissertation. I asked him for a picture, he graciously obliged, and I shared a bit about Pelotonia and why we were riding.
Sidenote: K’s songs provide the perfect soundtrack for long bike rides, which are typically just in my head (we don’t ride with headphones, for safety reasons). One of my favorite Kishi Bashi songs is “The Ballad of Mr. Steak,” which I’ve been known to croon at the top of my lungs while on my last few miles of a long ride, much to Noble’s disdain. Watch it and see if it doesn’t make you smile.
Back to the story: K was riding with one of his friends, who was a close friend of Al Pless. Both were riding on Al’s bikes, which was really cool! Impressively, it was K’s first road bike event (he had been mountain biking the day prior) and he even changed his plans, extending his ride from the 18-mile route to the 38-mile route. You can see some more of the beautiful scenery we observed throughout the ride. Maybe we’ll see him on the roads again soon!
Finishing the ride: Nearly five hours later, we returned to Jittery Joe’s. After riding so long, the finish was quite a sight for sore eyes. Our legs were so tired — this was our longest ride since Pelotonia last August! Thankfully, Ken and his friends from Athens Land Trust had prepared a delicious post-ride meal accompanied by a cold beer. We enjoyed our meal, rested for a bit, then jumped back on our bikes for a very slow ride home.
We hope you’ve enjoyed the journey through a ride with us! Read more about our team’s story at https://medium.com/midnight-train-from-georgia and contribute to our Pelotonia efforts at www.pelotonia.org/georgia.
Thanks again for joining us! Read more of our cycling stories at https://medium.com/midnight-train-from-georgia.
