Yesterday was the annual Cider Ride, an event staged by the Washington Area Bicyclists Association. As usual there were three ride options. The ten-mile option is for families or others who don’t want to ride all day. The 30-mile ride is for sane people. The 60-mile ride is the one I do every year.

Usually I ride with about ten people but for a variety of reasons we had six people this year. Chris and Kevin returned for the umpteenth time. Neena and her father Richard came along after they were not scared off by the 50 States Ride in September. Brian, whom I had never met, joined us at the start.

I led the group through the streets of Northeast DC before Chris – who was navigating with a GPS – took us up the Anacostia River trails to the first pit stop at Proteus Bicycles (looks like a terrific shop by the way) in College Park, Maryland. We had ridden 16 miles and Chris set a fast pace so we did our best to fuel up on donuts and hot apple cider.

We headed out for the road portion of the ride, north into the Greenbelt USDA agricultural preserve. Beyond that we rode up Powder Mill Road to the Pawtuxent Wildlife Refuge which graciously allowed us to use their restrooms. We determined that Richard had the longest arms so he took a team selfie.

We retraced our way down Powder Mill Road. It is a very smooth, slightly downhill roll so I let The Mule fly for a couple of miles. We were both pretty tired afterwards. The route took us through a residential neighborhood near Beltsville before we crossed the agricultural reserve toward Greenbelt. The crossing involved the only really serious climb of the route, a climb that is complicated by a gate across the road. You get extra bonus points for pedaling through the gap at the side of the gate. The Mule failed.

In Greenbelt we stopped at pit stop number two in Buddy Attick Park for apple pie and cider. Normally, this stop involves a bazillion bees but this year they weren’t so bad.

The route returns to the Anacostia Trails with a short diversion through Riverdale and Hyattsville. Next it was back to the trails as I lagged a few hundred yards behind the group. We hit the final pit stop at mile 47 in Bladensburg Waterfront Park for another donut. The next seven miles or so took us down the Anacostia River Trail to the 11th Street Bridge. We crossed the river and rode back up the ART on the west side of the river to RFK Stadium, a multiuse stadium that is now all but abandoned.

From RFK we rode the C Street cycle track to Capitol Hill then danced with city buses past Union Station. The First Street cycletrack took us to the Metropolitan Branch Trail for the last mile to the finish at Metrobar.

At Metrobar we refueled on last time on the USDA approved pizza and beer.

The ride really did me in this year. When Chris wasn’t putting the hurt on me, Kevin and Neena were. It felt like we were going much faster than last year but Chris says his Strava reported that we were actually five minutes slower. Maybe, just maybe, I would have done better if I had ridden over 500 miles since mid-October with only one day off.

Our group was pretty mellow this time. We missed Michael (dislocated shoulder), Domitille (torn ligament in her arm) and Sara (deployed by FEMA to help in southwestern Virginia). Michael brings his stunt riding (he did 50 States on bikeshare bikes). Domitille brings self deprecating humor and snark (not to mention celery). Sara’s boundless enthusiasm keeps our spirits up.

Today I took the day off from riding. I ordered prescriptions, did laundry, reset the time on my bike computers (a total PITA), and experimented with quieting the annoying buzz from my bike rack. I learned afterwards that the solution may be as simple as twisting the straps that connect the rack to the car.

Tomorrow, I return to the 10,000-mile quest. Only 1,151 miles to go!