Street Ladies

Cyclopath

Shop Owner / Employee
Shop Keep
This month begins my fifth year of working with a great group of gals on a very special ride. Some have been with me from the start, like Molly, who showed up on the first day back in 2008 when we sat in the safety of her car and chatted about my plan for a ride series for women while 35mph gusts rocked us back and forth. It was certainly a wise choice not to ride that day. Since then we've seen women from many backgrounds with all kinds of goals develop into better riders, athletes and friends. From the novice like Shallini, who would literally fall over every time she stopped(she came to us not knowing how to clip out) to Miriam(who qualified and competed in Sprint Triathalon Nationals last year), each has grown incredibly. We help girls and the occasional odd guy(some odder than others;)) develop into solid, skilled, confident cyclists.

Miriam(right) came to us as a gear masher with a super low cadence and though she was a tough egg to crack, she learned how to spin and practiced chasing down the competition with us.
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We ride the road at least twice a week with additional pick-up rides when desired and hit the trails a few times a month with those that are game for it.

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We've helped quite a few figure out all that complex cycling equipment.:D
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We've even taught some of the weekly manicure crowd how to get dirty and appreciate it.
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All while taking time to appreciate the little things.
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Since we always live by the mantra that girls just gotta have fun.
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We do charity events under our team name where we push the party beyond the weekly 2 1/2 hr hides and really have a blast. We're registered for the 170-200 mile MS Coast the Coast on May 19-20 and the Great Country Ride on September 22-23. Both rides are open to new team members if you'd like to join in the fun.
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It's a sisterhood that is always open to new friends.
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Molly(right) is our resident Queen of the Hills and Joanne(left) is a triathlete who is also the mayor of a rather nice Bergen County town. (Where else can you boast riding with the Mayor?)

We are part of btcnj.com and you can come try us out for a couple of rides. If you like our ride and join the btcnj, you'll gain access to the many, many more group rides of all kinds that they offer. If you'd like to give it a try and ride with us you can pm me for details and my cell # or just join us in the Pedal Sports lot at 9:45am on Mondays for a more relaxed ride or Wednesdays at 9:45am for a more spirited and competitive ride. We'll be starting Sunday mornings for triathletes in a week or so and watch for new rides leaving from the Madison Bicycle Shop that will expand on the Oakland group and even offer more formal opportunities including more riding on dirt.

Don't be shy, Ladies, come have fun.
Happy cycling!
 
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pixychick

JORBA: Ringwood
JORBA.ORG
Awesome post Sandi! Thank you for taking the time to bring some more ladies into the fold.
 

Robin

Well-Known Member
I would love to join you on a ride - but I work during the week...great post - loved the captions with the photos!
 

pedals

Well-Known Member
Really enjoyed this, Sandy.. Love seeing the pics and stories. I wish i had more time to travel so I could join. Keep up the great work & if you ever want to venture North, call me.
 

Cyclopath

Shop Owner / Employee
Shop Keep
I lead the Monday and Wednesday 10am rides out of Oakland, NJ from the Pedal Sports parking lot at 20-D Elm Street.
I also do rides from The Madison Bicycle Shop's lot in Madison, NJ(which my be closer to you) but those rides are not on a regular schedule. I'll send you a PM with my phone # and a link to join our email list so you can call or write for more info.

Happy riding!
 

Cyclopath

Shop Owner / Employee
Shop Keep
Today the weather was perfect and the company was good. We saw a turtle and red-winged blackbirds, rabbits, ducks and many manicured gardens. A red-tailed hawk swooped down and across the road not more than 20 feet in front of me and just a foot over my head. It was awesome.

More importantly, three newbie ladies fell a little more in love with their bikes today.
 

Cyclopath

Shop Owner / Employee
Shop Keep
Awesome cool weather, albeit a bit gusty
What a great ride today... er, yesterday with seven of my most favorite girlfriends. I took all the climbs today even after pulling for the entire ride. I was challenged on the first climb in the last 15 or so yards as I saw the shadow of a helmet on the pavement trying to creep up on me. I was breathing like a locomotive by then but there was no way in hell I was going to let anyone crest that hill before me after I pulled their pampered behinds for 17 miles!!

QOM
Admittedly, Molly(our QOM) would have demolished me on the second (mile and a half long climb:drooling:) if I hadn't opened up a huge gap on the three corners and the 1/2 mile flat leading into it. I really have to ride super smart to keep anything from Molly. I'm really busting my butt to lessen the inevitable embarrassment of being the last one up all 8000ft of climbs of the Gran Fondo on Septmember 9th. The sad thing about hills, it doesn't get easier, you just go faster. For the Fondo, I'm praying for short, steep climbs after long, sweet downhills.

Two weeks after the Fondo(Sept 22-23), most of us are already registered for the Great MS Country Ride. A special new addition to our team, we will be attended by the Mayor and the Secret Service(recent retired). Yep, we got our very own bodyguard. SWEET!! So if you want to be assured of fun, great stories and complete protection;) join "The Chain Gang" on any of the rides or pm me for more info.

Summer Hours!!
Starting Monday our rides roll out at 9am and finish by 11:30 to beat the summer heat. Mondays are for recovery where we stay together and ride to the ability of the slowest rider(around 13mph). Wednesdays are more spirited with sprint points and hill challenges but we always regroup on hills and don't drop anyone that is willing to work really hard. Both rides roll out from the Pedal Sports lot in Oakland. The weekday rides are Ladies only with occasional "invitation only" guys.

Sunday co-ed rides from the Madison Bike Shop are when I feel like it(or when people beg repeatedly).
The Gran Fondo and MS rides are equal opportunity, ladies rule. OK?:D

Want to get dirty?
I've got a crazy schedule, but let's try to make it work at LM, RW, JH, HMtn, Skyline or even the Tourne if you know that place.

Just PM me for any info.
 

pixychick

JORBA: Ringwood
JORBA.ORG
Thanks for leading all these rides Cyclo! Great stuff you are talking about here. I really should try to get out there and join you a few times. I'm not much of a roadie, and not a morning person, but I can certainly handle 9:00 am.
 

Cyclopath

Shop Owner / Employee
Shop Keep
We'd be more than happy to have any of you girls join us! Maybe keep it on your radar for a monday off? 4th of July may be pre-empted by a crazy ride off the front of a string of parades through a bunch of towns in Bergen county. No confirmation on it yet...
 

Cyclopath

Shop Owner / Employee
Shop Keep
Mondays are for recovery... unless we're alone.

We sometimes get 15 riders but it was just me and Miriam yesterday and that doesn't usually equal recovery. When there are no slower riders we just do what we do. Which means we just keep ramping it up hoping someone else gives up first.

I've been riding with no spedometer for quite some time and just judging my speed. You get pretty good at it after a while and when I ask one of the girls, "What are we at?" I'm rarely off by more than half a mph. So I was pretty surprised when we got to the top of the first little climb on 202 and I said, "I felt like crap on that one, how fast were we going?" and she said, "We were at 22-23 at the second signpost." I have no idea where the second signpost was or how far up the incline it was but I highly doubt that it was more than a few feet up it because you just can't fool gravity for too long. So we hit Jacksonville with the same vigor and at the top, I puked.:puke: On the lead up to the last hill coming into Oakland, I passed a car on the left that had pulled out in front of me, oblivious to us. (Not something we usually condone, but I'm doing near 30mph and he's crawling.) All in all, it was definitely not a recovery ride.

Anyway, we have a new girl coming on Wednesday who says she's an intermediate to advanced rider and that means little until we see what she can do. But it also means that we might be slower than the usual Wednesday 16mph average pace. Which means if you're borderline you can feel free to jump in on this one. Please.

If not, please join us next Monday so we keep it where it belongs.
 

Cyclopath

Shop Owner / Employee
Shop Keep
Ladies, do you ride regularly with a group of friends?

If you don't, you should. I can't tell you how much these girls mean to me and how much the group means to each of us. It is our solace, our passion, our therapy, our sisterhood and a thousand other things all in one little package. It's our own piece of the week where nothing else matters but the breeze in our hair, the sun on our skin and the wheels going round. It's a mobile incarnation of 'home'.

Do I make sense? Probably not. I wish each of you the pleasure of such a great group. If you can't join us, I encourage you to make one of your own. it's not hard, it just takes commitment.

"Build it and they will come"... yes, they certainly will.

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My Hydrangeas were spectacular again. 100% natural, no color enhancers or photo finishing. I'm very lucky to have such a show.

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Arwen's Mom

Mother of Dragons, Breaker of Chains
Group riding...
I will admit to not really liking large "social" situations. While I do not like to ride alone, I usually tend to want small groups. However, the beginner rides at Allaire have shown me how much fun it is to ride in large groups. It really is exciting to see 20 or more people come together from all walks of life just over the love of biking. We all ride, get along, and help each other. It really is a beautiful thing.

If you build it they will come...good inspiration for me. Recently started a biking club in my church. So far it has had minimal participation. But I will keep at it. I know it will grow if given time, much like Hydrangeas...

they are beautiful! I am sure you know, it is the soil acidity (or lack thereof) that causes the colors. Dump your old coffee grounds, or pine needles, around the base of the shrubs will give you more deep blues.
 

pedals

Well-Known Member
I love the hydrangeas !!! I can't have them because of the deer. Bummer..

Love seeing the pics, Sandy.
 

Cyclopath

Shop Owner / Employee
Shop Keep
I don't pull out the phone so much for photos because we don't stop often or hang around chatting at a coffee shop and there's not much excitement in endless photos of ladies' behinds(at least there isn't for me:p). And the great conversations are impossible to portray in a picture.

Instead, to illustrate that we don't take ourselves too seriously and we're not really elitists or beyond having fun, I recycle a photo:
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On the right is Miriam who trains with me every week and has qualified for Sprint Triathalon Nationals two years running. Look at her wheels. Notice the little balls of color at the spoke nipples? Yep, spokey-dokes. Now, I wouldn't be caught dead with them on my bike, nor the purple cow horn or the streamers she used to have on her bike and I just roll my eyes as she threatens to put a flower basket on the front of her Specialized Roubaix, but it really is okay with me if she does. As long as she's riding safe and responsibly and having fun, it doesn't really matter. We take ourselves much too seriously most of the time and the ladies rides are a great place to just relax and be yourself.

Come jump in. We're still riding every week, twice a week, 9am. PM me if you have any questions or still think we're just too stuffy .
 

Arwen's Mom

Mother of Dragons, Breaker of Chains
I love the colorful and playful accents ;)

what days? how long? where?
would love to meet up with you guys once in a while, but depends on where and when and how long due to work and such.
 

Cyclopath

Shop Owner / Employee
Shop Keep
We almost never have problems with drivers on our route but today made up for it. First, as we were passing a landscaping trailer parked along the road, the engine started up. (We ride past his truck almost every week while they work and never had a problem with them and I doubt he knows who I am, all kitted up and helmeted, but I certainly know who he is.) I used my usual "Hup, hup!" yell to alert the driver that we were there so he wouldn't pull out and cream us all. The girls behind did the same and we passed safely. A block or so up the road he passed us and blared his horn. And he really sat on it too. He sat on it so long that it still blared as he turned and went down the next street. I didn't think he was a total jerk when we were kids but he was one guy that didn't understand that "no" meant "Not even if hell freezes over.":p. Either he turned into a supreme asshat or his horn got stuck.:D

Fifteen uneventful miles later we are coming down the long hill and this dumptruck pulls out between two of the girls, rides in the left lane of the road and slowly wanders back over. She's doing maybe 30mph and had to hit her brakes and I'm coming up to them in the 40's and am on his tail and on my brakes in seconds. The man makes an obvious nuisance of himself taking the entire road and I go left in the lane far enough to see him in his mirror and let him know I'm there. So seeing a cyclist behind him this prime example of the species hits his brakes. Sweet. He's in a fifty ton dump truck and he's out to prove himself against some women in spandex on 20 pound bikes. How small does your dick have to be to act like that?:confused:

I ride where he can't see me, then come back out to the left when he looks like he's going to turn right and he sticks his arm out the window and waves for me to pass him. Right, like I'm gonna trust this goon. So, he brake-checks me again and goes straight. Brilliant.

I called the agressive driver hotline-#77 and gave the details and license plates. The officer I spoke with was very nice and seemed interested but I have no idea if anything will come of it. It would be great if this guy got a little talking to by the cops, wouldn't it? In the meantime, watch yourselves on Jacksonville, there's big guy out there with an itty-bitty trying to prove he's a man.
 
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