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| Becca and me and our sweet rides. |
Pittsburgh
celebrated local craft beer this week with several events, including the Keg Ride put on by
Bike Pgh and the
East End Brewing Company. Apparently this ride celebrated the first of this season's kegs of
Pedal Pale Ale by having a few people tote kegs on trailers hitched to their bikes to a secret celebration destination. 600 people registered to participate to ride along, including Velo Femme teammate Mary, so I was in too. Becca and I volunteered to table for Pike Pgh during registration, a task which consisted of getting there very early, handing out a lot of bike maps of Pittsburgh, and telling people where the trash can was.
The day was freezing cold, but hundreds of people still showed up with their bicycles, which was a beautiful sight. The ride started in Larimer (?), had a super secret route around Highland Park, and ended up at a hot dog shop in East Liberty, but that was the surprise. Becca split off early, leaving me at the end of the string of cyclists with an extra beer ticket. I started pedaling through the crowd, looking for Mary and her buddies.
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| Look at all those bicycles! |
The ride was comparable to a parade; we took up a whole lane of the road and stretched for several blocks behind a police escort. I had recently read a lot of online literature about criterium racing strategy, and I was definitely employing the "
Move within the pack" technique to move up the pack. To further the criterium analogy, I ultimately got the front of the pack, missing Mary, but realized that the ride was much sweeter up there. For one, the front was populated by much stronger riders; no wobbly front wheels (or "squirrelly riders"), and at the back of the pack we had to wait at red lights, but right behind the police escort, we ruled the road. And, most importantly, once we arrived at our destination, I got a sweet spot near the front of the beer line.
Final stats: 8.33 miles (from my front door to my front door) and 3 beers.
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