I rolled out of bed this morning pretty quick and screwed in my water bottle cage and pump mount. I put on the full pile of clothes I had laying on the floor beside my bike and headed out the door. I got to the Java Shack right on time and was wishing I'd also put on my light as dark as it was.

Dana Matassa was keeping warm waiting in his car, but got got out and applied a bit of lube to his chain when I pulled up. I had some lube in my jersey pocket and applied it to my newly cleaned chain. Not long after, Bill rolled up on his 'cross bike. Surprisingly the weight of his bike and the Sirrus were not that far off. About ten minutes past the appointed time of 6:30a, we rolled out onto Lee Highway and then shortly on to the Custis Trail.

We rode the Custis along the same route I've been running recently, then picked up the W&OD and rode it towards its start. That's the first time I've rode in that far in that direction. It's a nice ride along the creek, but cold at this time of the morning. As we hit the W&OD, we picked up two more Coppi riders: Joe Metro and Rich Fristik. Rich was riding his MTB, and Joe was on the team bike, Javelin Brunello.

We rode a ways until we ended up at the foot of the Walter Reed Blvd. hill. I asked the guys pretty quick which way we were turning. I actually rode that hill not long after I got to Arlington and it is a doozy. Long and pretty steep. It whipped me pretty good. We turned the opposite way and evenutally wound our way around to the Mount Vernon Trail.

Coming past the airport with the sun rising was neat. You can see most of the city laid out before you and it's beautiful. We rode through Gravelly Point just as a plane was landing and boy was it spectacular! I thought the plane was going to hit us it came in so close. Really amazing. We'll have to get out there soon and watch JP land one. It was easy going along the Potomac the rest of the way until we ended up back in Rosslyn where we took Lee Highway back to the Java Shack. I actually turned off just before the shack and headed home off of Veitch St. I reluctantly went to work after a terrific hot shower and some breakfast.

This ride, known as the "Muffin Ride," was exactly as billed: a nice easy spin. It's a great way to start of the morning, making a tour of Arlington. The ride is totally social and nothing like the second half of the Sunday ride. It sucks I had to go to work and couldn't stick around for the muffin portion of the ride. The Java Shack's hot chocolate is quality. Nice and sweet.

Despite my full assembly of the bike last night, the Sirrus performed adequately. I'm not too bad a mechanic after all. I'll have to fix the derailleur hanger tonight though. I was missing shifts in the lower gears because of it.