Tim Johnson’s Ride On Washington: Come Ride With US!!!! HOLD THIS DATE!

[Dirt]

More details will follow on this. I just want to get people thinking about taking part of a day off… or even just a long lunch break to join us.

TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 2012

I’m not talking about riding the whole thing… but just the last day… or just PART of the last day.

Last day will be Baltimore to DC. The route is about 50 miles of rolling hills. Things move along at a fairly spirited clip for the first 35 miles of that.

But what we’d REALLY like is to get a good group of people to join us for the last part of it… Between College Park and the Capitol. We’ll publish the exact route we’re taking and a pretty good guestimate of when we’ll be where. The plan is to pick up people along the way and get a nice, huge group of riders for the last few miles. We’ll pass many CaBi stations, so some folks can grab a bike and join us.

This section of the ride will be casually paced. Tim might have to jump ahead to do some schmoozing at the end, but there will be guides and other riders to lead the whole group in, so we lose no-one (Like we did last year when Tim was late for an ESPN interview and wound up conducting it on his cell phone while flying through the city at 18+mph with the rest of us chasing like crazy.)

At the end of the ride we’ll have a big gathering with a bunch of riders and cyclists. Festivities are in the works…. as is the exact location of the final arrival point. We’ll have all that info finalized soon.

This was by far the funnest part of the ride last year. Please mark that date on our calendar and come out and welcome us to DC!!!! I’ll post up more details when I’ve got them!!!

http://rideonwashington.org/

Topic

[Dirt]

We have a starting point and time in Baltimore.

Our hotel in Baltimore is: Hampton Inn & Suites Baltimore Inner Harbor, 131 East Redwood Street, Baltimore, Maryland

If you’re riding the whole last day, please arrive by 0830 and be ready to ride a little before 0900.

If you’re getting a lift from a friend or family member to Baltimore and have an extra seat in the car, let me know. I’m sure we could get some people to fill that seat and chip in for gas.

Love,

Pete

[DaveK]

@Dirt 15228 wrote:

We have a starting point and time in Baltimore.

Our hotel in Baltimore is: Hampton Inn & Suites Baltimore Inner Harbor, 131 East Redwood Street, Baltimore, Maryland

If you’re riding the whole last day, please arrive by 0830 and be ready to ride a little before 0900.

If you’re getting a lift from a friend or family member to Baltimore and have an extra seat in the car, let me know. I’m sure we could get some people to fill that seat and chip in for gas.

Love,

Pete

Do you know the route? My wife drives up the Parkway from DC every day and could drop me off to ride back in.

[Dirt]

@DaveK 15252 wrote:

Do you know the route? My wife drives up the Parkway from DC every day and could drop me off to ride back in.

The route will be finalized this next week. They’re still working on it a bit.

[Greenbelt]

Photo from a prior ride included here (note the photo credit): http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/02/news/road/must-readwatch-cycling-advocacy-merger_207200

I remembered this old video too on route:

[Tim Kelley]

It’s looking like I’ll be leaving from Arlington that morning around 7:15am to head up towards Baltimore doing the route backwards and trying to meet up with the group somewhere along the way.

Anyone interested in some pace lining?

[zanna_leigh]

@DaveK 15252 wrote:

My wife drives up the Parkway from DC every day and could drop me off to ride back in.

If you have an extra seat in the car I wouldn’t mind hitching a ride either….

[DaveK]

@zanna_leigh 15342 wrote:

If you have an extra seat in the car I wouldn’t mind hitching a ride either….

I don’t know if I want to bust my hump trying to keep up with Tim now… decisions, decisions. Fortunately we’ve got some time. If I do end up doing that you can definitely hitch a ride.

Only thing is I need to make sure her work location will be the same then. Depending on the assignment she may be in a different spot, same general area though.

[Dirt]

Awesome that y’all are coming up. I will talk to the people at Freshbikes tonight when I stop by to see if they have ideas on how they are caravaning up to Baltimore. I’ve been told a few times that they’ve got some people going up. I have to drop off some literature there tonight.

One option is to take train up the night before and get a hotel. It makes for a late night because the only train that allows baggage is the 10pm train. That’s how I’m getting to Boston.

I’ve been told that the last day will be a more inclusive pace than what we will have ridden the 4 preceding days. I know the pace from Collage Park into DC will be quite mellow. I’ll talk to some folks and see if perhaps they’ll have some folks who can guide at a more mellow pace. In theory I’ve got to stay with the front group because we’ve got a few things along the way for the people who complete the whole ride.

[Dirt]

Some of the other folks who will be joining in on the ride are:
*Pete Webber from IMBA… former pro mountain biker.
*Richard Fries from Bikes Belong. He’s got a great history as a cycling journalist and ambassador. I rode shoulder to shoulder with Richard quite a bit last year and he is a great guy to listen to and learn from.
*Jan Bolland Tanner 1992 women’s Team Time Trial World Champ with many more impressive results on her resume.

That’s just a few of the people that will be on the ride. It should be a cool opportunity to ride with these folks!!! All of them are not only great cyclists with cool histories, but they’re also very serious about their advocacy.

[elcee]

Any idea when you’re going to hit College Park? I might Metro to there then ride down to DC.

[eminva]

I was thinking of joining in at College Park, too.

Pete, do you think anyone at or associated with Proteus be willing to guide a grupetto into DC? You have some fast company there and I’m guessing their definition of “mellow” would be on the fast side. I would offer myself, but I would probably get lost in that trail network and end up at the Severn River. Or the Missouri River. (with apologies to Greenbelt, who patiently guided me through there once before).

Liz

[Greenbelt]

I’m planning to ride the last leg from College Park to DC. Happy to guide a sprinters’ gruppetto at the back…

[Dirt]

I think all of us will be ready for a fairly relaxed day of riding.

I should have a better idea of the whole route a little later this week. I’ll be able to give a good estimate of when we will hit College Park. If I had to guess right now, I would say we will be there a few minutes before noon.

Thanks Greenbelt for your help with this.

Pete.

[vvill]

I’m waiting to see what the route is to figure out my options. I’d much rather ride from home/work to somewhere on the route than take metro at all. I’ve never ridden east of the 9:30 Club (sheltered, I know) but getting to at least College Park seems doable.

[Dirt]

I talked to J-Wa (aka Jason Walder) at FreshBikes and he and Scott are thinking about riding up to Baltimore early that morning. Tim, you might have someone to ride with.

[Author]

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