The Second Paper Route Ride

"Git yer paper here! Saturday paper here! Morning edition here!"

The second Paper Route Ride, the annual event to help along the Olympic aspirations of Jenna Rollman and Samantha Bosco, rolled out from the Competitive Edge this morning, a boisterous affair of spinning chains, shifting gears, and humming wheels, the latest bike gossip and laughter all around.

Last year I could only make the after-ride party, this year the pre-ride send-off; maybe next year I can be there from beginning to end, but with moms passing there is much to do at the old homestead, and velodrome racing this evening, so... any more than the morning gathering will have to wait.

Affairs like this one are always fun which made it all the more difficult to leave before seeing it all the way through. Never-the-less, it is also always heartening to see so many of the local cycling clubs and teams being represented - it is that old idea of community, of everyone coming together in common cause. There have been a number of these rides over the past couple years (not just the Paper Route Ride), helping to raise funds for our two para-cycling champions, and I don't think you will find a single rider among us who is not proud of what the two have accomplished, nor hold any regrets for the small part we have played. I think we will all continue to count ourselves among their biggest supporters as they ride in pursuit of their cycling goals.

A selection of fifty-one photos from the morning can be found here.