I have written about this before and the benefits are many.
The camaraderie, the skill building, the socializing.it goes on and on. Group rides are awesome in every way.
But last month one of our group rides was disrupted and apparently there is one more benefit that I never would have thought existed. We had two groups of riders that night and as my group was heading back to the finish in the dark, we saw a flashlight.
In all honesty we would have normally ignored it thinking it was a hiker, but at the last minute realized this was a cop wandering around randomly.
We quickly found out that someone was lost and stuck somewhere in the bush, and the more bodies helping search increased the chances of a positive outcome.
So we rode around randomly searching the Snowden trails. We covered quite a bit of ground, but with no luck.
After about 30 minutes we came across more police and were pleasantly surprised to find five more riders from the second group.
With the powerful night riding lights and ability to cover more ground on bikes than foot, they had helped the police to narrow down the search to one area, and another 20 or 30 minutes after that, he was found, removed and taken to safety.
So not the ride any of us were expecting that night, but one to remember for sure. No celebration of a great ride, no stories of sweet air and no pub night...just relief that everyone was safe.
I’m James Durand and I’m Goin’ Ridin’