I won the slow-roll !!!
My city is having a "cyclefest" kicked off with a 9-mile "slow roll". The organizers, mayor and a few other stiffs gave speeches before it began while we were in front of some news cameras. My "kit was a "free Palestine" shirt, which I wrote "Free Assange" on the back with a Sharpie marker, cuttoff jeans, sneakers and of course I was riding the Huffy "bluegrass" Scout.
City police were to escort the hundred riders give or take on the route, helping with stopping traffic at some big intersections. The ride did not start until 6pm though, and I had ridden to the event and wanted to get home before the shadows got too long for safety's sake, so shortly after the start I bolted ahead pulling my usual 52/19 gear, passed the police escort and the rest of the riders, and ran through the red-light and traffic at the first major intersection. I don't know if it was some of the ride organizers or police that were yelling at me as I made it through the intersection, but they had stopped and I forged ahead and left them behind. I had looked at the route map earlier in the day on the event website, it went out then looped back to the start, then continued to the other side of town in another loop before the ride finished back at it's starting point in the town square. I finished the first loop in a matter of minutes, stopped at the town square and looked at the route map again, then took off and hammered out the West loop as fast as I could, stopping only to have a man refill my water bottle with his garden hose while we had some nice conversation.
As I got back to town square and the starting point, I pumped my fist in the air, yelled that I was the winner and demanded to know where the news cameras and my trophy was, nobody seemed to know, but a few of them did congratulate me. I had an ice-cream cone, told the organizers I had to leave before the cops got back, then took off and rode home as fast as I could.
So chalk up another big win for the 1973 Huffy Bluegrass. !!! There are five more riding events as part of this "cyclefest" so stay tuned for more information on future victories.