Until now I had no idea RYA was a "thing." The small group of friends I ride with think I'm a little nuts when I do it every year, and my wife is a little tired of hearing about it.
I'm also surprised to hear that group rides decreased because of COVID. The small group I now ride with started because of COVID, when the non-profit bike shop we volunteer for reduced its public hours. We all had extra time on our hands, found out we were compatible as a cycling group, and knew how to keep our distancing. Until then my wife and I were largely solitary cyclists, accustomed to weeks out alone on tours, and daily commuting. We did rides no one else really wanted to do.
At 64, I still ride my age pretty much once a week, with shorter trips filling out 100 to 150 mile weeks most of the year. It's a way of life, literally. I hope to continue the trend to age 70 and realistically expect it to ebb then. Perhaps then it'll be once a year rather than weekly.
An annual event more important to me than my birthday is my epic ride up Mt Evans, CO from my home in Golden, a 98 mile day with 11,000' vertical feet. I keep expecting every year to be the last year I make it, but this year was one of the best years I've had up there, and hope to do it at least once more at age 65. Here at my new home in Tucson, I've been cycling Mt Lemmon twice a month for 7,700' of gain in 70 miles. If I can keep that up this winter, I'll have a shot at Mt Evans this summer. But I know Old Man Time will pop his head in one of this days and tell me to stop that foolishness.
Last edited by andrewclaus; 12-14-21 at 07:50 AM.