Six of our Monday-night "regulars" joined me tonight on a gorgeous late-summer evening, with just a hint of fall crispness in the air. Adam, Beth, James, Jerome, Shelby, and Tony have been around the block a few times, so we skipped over the usual pre-ride road instructions, and instead spent some time talking about nutrition and hydration, along with emphasizing the importance of signing up for rides on the RideWithGPS Events Page (it helps the ride leader plan on who is coming, and it helps with getting in touch with people if anything goes wrong during the ride).

With all of that out of the way, we hit the road, rolling over the bike path bridge into Hadley, where we soon encountered a powered paraglider soaring overhead, a cool sight.

Further up Route 47, after hearing that Beth and James were preparing for next weekend's D2R2, I decided to give them a taste of dirt by taking a brief detour on Shattuck Road through Russelville. This featured some great farm scenery and a couple of nice tobacco barns, but I don't think Shelby approved of the dirt.

After rolling south on Maple Street, we tackled the short but steep climb on Breckinridge Road, where several PRs were set, including Shelby beating her best time on the climb by 15 seconds -- great work! We enjoyed the descent down to Rocky Hill Road, and then headed back to the start on the bike path, stopping for a quick photo op on the bridge.

We finished up back at Sheldon Field at about 7:05 PM with 17 miles, averaging about 12.5 mph.

Next week will be our last Monday night ride of the summer -- hope to see you there!