I have no responsibilities here whatsoever

There was a time not too long ago when I rarely if ever rode with a group of people and most of my cycling was a solo effort with the occasional meetup with a friend or two. It wasn't that I necessarily liked riding alone but prior to about 2012 all the rides I seemed to be able to find were fast paced road rides and I was not fast paced or really a road cyclist but I gave a few of them a go. Then I found the Cycle Works ride through Wilderness Park and I had found my people, sure it was a brisk pace but there were plenty of regroups and lots of friendly faces. Around 2014 the original leader of the ride moved away and it was rumored that the ride might just go away, not wanting that to happen I asked about leading it and as they say the rest is history. Hard to believe that some version of that ride has been lead by me or one of my friends for almost 10 years now.




Gravel as been a great medium for cycling, the people who ride it are friendly and the sense of community is great. It has also lead to more fun group rides popping up in the area and we've been taking advantage of a few of those.





One we have been hitting up recently is the Tuesday night gravel or TuNG that is put on by the Big Blue Biking Club in Beatrice, Nebraska. This one meets at and ends at a brewery and so far has seen a group of people with similar riding pace so they have been a bit spirited but nothing too crazy. While no drop is a really nice type of ride to have, it's also fun occasionally to "show and go" so to speak but even this ride has regroups so it's the best of both worlds I suppose.. or the worst of both worlds depending on your take.





Another great one we've been frequenting as of late is the Backroads gravel ride out of Marysville, Kansas on Thursday nights when we can make it. Living sort or in between both towns it has been convenient making both when we don't have other responsibilities keeping us from riding. Rumor has it that this one is maybe switching to Wednesday nights to avoid conflicts with shop hours on Thursdays so we will see if that comes to fruition or not. Both are great rides with a fun crowd and as much as I love leading the ride in Lincoln on most Saturdays, it's been a lot of fun being able to just show up and ride without having any responsibilities whatsoever.