Another successful local event

This past Saturday, May 9, 2009, Bicycles East put on their highly successful Poker Ride. It is a ride to raise money for MAC Cares. All the monies raised stays local to help disenfranchised youths channel their energies into swimming. A worthy goal.

There were many volunteers to help make this a successful ride, I apologize that I cannot print your names here as I did not get everyone’s. The manned three rest stops along the 51 mile route.

The ride started a few minutes after 9:00am with a large variety of riders and a Matthews Police escort out past Independence Highway (Route 74). Bicycles East does a lot with the town of Matthews and Police escort is one of the perks for being a good community citizen.

As far as I can tell from my position in one of the two SAG vehicles (Mike Cox drove the other), The group split up fairly early with a rather large contingent in the fastest group. Then a second not as large group and after than many smaller groups. Even with the spread there was only about 30 minutes separating the first from the last rider  at the first stop.

The wind was a constant factor and by the time many riders got to the last rest stop there were quite a few suffering from the rapid rise in temperature and a few had to be SAGed in. Still it was a beautiful day for a ride. I really wished I could have been out there riding also.

Nicole took quite a few pictures, most at the start and at both the first and second rest stops. The best ones were taken climbing Renee Ford Road up to the second rest stop. She tried to make sure that every rider was pictured and apologizes if you look through all the photos and do not find a picture of yourself.

The winners of the prizes are posted on the Bicycles East web site, so look up there if you have any questions. They will also be posting a subset of Nicole’s images in a slightly lower resolution for faster browsing. If you do find an image of yourself that you would like please leave a comment here and we will try to accommodate your request by emailing you one.