Favorite bike ride, 2011

I didn't post anything about this on or near the day that it happened, so I think, in retrospect, it would be good of me to post a short blog entry about the 2011 Red Ride. Tom Lais, a cyclist I met while riding on Lexington Avenue, who is somehow related to my friend's sister's cousin's uncle, suggested I join his century ride to Saint John's University in 2011. The previous year, the ride left at 8:00 AM from the Minneapolis Basilica, and eventually made it to Saint John's, after riding through tornadic wind conditions, hail, lightning and some pretty substantial rainfall. I, true to form, slept in that morning and missed the ride, though the storm hit the area I was residing in at the time - the downed trees, knocked out power lines and damaged houses told me I had made the right decision.
After some preliminary planning with Tom and a few of the other riders of the 2010 Red Ride in January of 2011, and occasionally seeing Tom on his bicycle throughout a very snowy and prolonged winter, I awoke on the morning of June 25th, got my lycra and cleats together and rode over to Minneapolis, catching the group as riders were leaving the Minneapolis Bascilica for the 100 mile ride to Saint John's University.
The group started as nearly twenty riders, and throughout the course of the day, varied from a dozen to again, nearly twenty riders. A section of road was under construction, a crash occurred, there was a flat tire immediately, a strong tailwind at one point had the peloton, (group) traveling at a very casual twenty seven miles an hour, somebody went the whole way without a helmet and somebody from a state school showed up and tried to make all of the small private liberal arts school alumni feel like overly educated pansies, (he had lots of tattoos and smoked and drank a Leblatt's on the saddle of his custom titanium frame cross bike), I'm pretty sure there was a 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air Sedan he and his friends were in the process of chasing down.
Having ridden group rides before, but not from the perspective of being an accomplished and confident rider myself, or specifically on a road bike, I felt strong all day and finished the century well. I made some new friends during the course of the day, and found out later Tom would ride a double century on his 70th birthday...maybe it was his 72nd. He also rode the Arrowhead 135, on a Salsa custom Mukluk. I think my favorite memory of the day, in all, was seeing the Saint John's campus again, and laughing at the memory of hauling my Raleigh Technium Obsession onto campus, in 1993, hanging it upside down in my dorm room and riding it less than a hundred yards a day to the science building, for a couple of weeks...with my Biology and Chemistry books in paniers.
Also notable and ultimately more significant than my personal memories of that day, are the Benedectine Values that surrounded the ride and the day itself. They are,

Awareness of God
Moderation
Hospitality
Dignity of Work
Community Living
Listening
Taking Counsel
Common Good
Truthful Living
Stewardship
Respect for Persons
Justice

Thank you again to Tom and the Saint John's Alumni Association.