A couple of the women at work have started adding a bit of a loop to their commutes home on a Wednesday evening. This Wednesday past I realised half way through the morning - ooh, it's Wednesday, I wonder if they're going out, I wonder if I'd be welcome, and the e-mail query was sent. I confess, I was a bit euphoric to discover it was game on for that evening. Imagine, a lovely sunny day, all the time in the world (lights were packed) and four women with bikes ready to ride together in the evening sunshine. Lovely.
Genuinely, I was excited about it. I don't often get to ride with women, or if I do it's mixed groups on mountain bikes. There was a certain amount of special about the idea of this on the road. Women, not girls. Women doing their thing, uninfluenced by blokes, no supportive spouses offering to carry stuff, no men being asked for advice on routes, in fact, no fuss whatsoever, just women and their bikes.
It was lovely. Hannah in charge of the route and each of us in charge of ourselves. There was a mechanical, we sorted it in a nonchalant self sufficient manner. No fuss. There were undulating ups and downs and whooshy bits, there were riders on the other side of the road, some of whom nodded, smiled, waved and others who were far too serious to acknowledge us.
It makes me smile, how road riding folk view others. We were just women on bikes. Happy.
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