Day 5 ride was the longest of the #30daysofbiking rides so far. I joke – and like most jokes there is truth there – that rides in street clothes are rides of a *bike rider* and rides in spandex are rides of a *cyclist*. It is a well understood fact (by most anyway) that drivers are more tolerant of bike riders than cyclists.
I talked yesterday about how easy going drivers were on Day 4’s ride, today’s bike jersey/shorts ride i.e., cyclist ride was an example of how irritated drivers can be. I find it so interesting that depending on how you are dressed (and possibly the type of bike you are riding) people actually react differently to you. It wouldn’t be an issue for cyclists except the irritated drivers sometimes respond in a manner that puts us at risk. There have been studies done confirming this, according to one, the safest person riding a bike is a female pulling a trailer commonly used for hauling kids.
Today’s ride was great regardless. We parked at Oakdale school and rode to Jones on Hefner Rd. The same road that hundreds of cyclists (and bike riders 🙂 will be riding tomorrow at the Redbud Classic bike event. Signage was already out warning drivers to expect possible delays.
The ride to Jones is so peaceful (and easy), especially on weekdays when most are at work. We saw more cows than people. I had to stop to take a picture of this longhorn and her calf.
Once we hit Jones and started heading back we decided to just ride home and pick up the car later. Good decision because once we started heading north we had a very nice tailwind from the southwest. You can see how strong the wind is from the flag in the photo below.
Aren’t the redbuds beautiful!
We picked up another 8 miles by riding home of mostly easy pedaling although there was a fair amount of traffic. One person buzzed us even though the left lane was completely empty choosing to stay in the right lane where we were passing us very close and THEN got over into the left lane.
Once we could we got off the busy streets and ride through neighborhoods to get home we did. Also gave me time to get a few more shots.
