On Saturday, Chris and I met up with Dave at Peden Stadium at around 7:30 a.m. The forecast called for a beautiful day, and we wanted to take full advantage of it. We had hoped to ride to Nelsonville and back on the Athens Bike Path, but the path was still largely frozen just south of Eclipse Company Town. So we turned around and got off the path at Currier, allowing us to tackle the formidable Second Street Hill. We all cleared the hill without walking, which is actually a pretty good indicator that we’re already pretty strong, despite the year just beginning. We then took East State Street down to the bike path and back to Peden, for a total of 12.6 miles. It was a great first ride of the year, leaving us very hungry for more. Oh, and it was 21 degrees when we started. And 26 degrees when we finished. It did reach 45 as a high on Saturday, and a lot of folks asked me why we didn’t wait until it got warmer to ride. For me, the afternoon was already spoken for, so I had to get my riding done early.