The feeling that I get before every big ride, or event where I have to perform at my best is the same. It's a very, very strong feeling. Today I had to lead a group ride. As soon as I got on the bike, and the wheels started rolling, though, all of that melted away. It was all about fun after that.

It was a very small group, for sure (three including myself), but it was still significant. It was my first time leading a group ride, and I had never met any of the other riders before. I had no real idea of their abilities/experience, and we were exploring a route they had never been on before. Even though each rider is ultimately responsible for his/her safety. It's also my responsibility to lead them on a ride that is safe and enjoyable.

One of the very first group rides I was on (much like this one; three people) - the lead rider went down in a corner. I definitely didn't want that to happen. My other major concern was one of the riders running into me from behind. I'm usually quite happy cruising in the back of the group, but this was my route and my ride.

As it turns out the ride went pretty well. It would have been excellent, except that one of our group got a flat rear tire WHILE going around a corner. He didn't fall, but it was good that we were in a remote area with very little traffic, and no vehicles were approaching at the time.

Got to try out my new patch kit. The inflator works great. Each of the 16 gram CO2 canisters equates to about 5 psi of rear tire pressure. We ended up using all 6 of my canisters to get 30 psi into the rear wheel. The plug held up and we made it to a gas station about 20 miles away to get some more air. Did you know some places charge 75 cents for air. Before that happened though, the ride was awesome.

Of course we had to cut the ride short. It wouldn't have been safe to ride that tire to where we were headed. We weren't even half-way to our turn around point (another 60+ miles of back roads).

We headed back, and decided to stop at a local shop to get a fresh tire for the injured bike. I ended up replacing both my tires as well since I almost had 5000 miles on my tires, and they were starting to look a little ragged. The rubber on the front was getting really hard, and the center on the rear was less than a millimeter above the wear beads. Now I have a new pair of Diablo Corsa IIIs that need to be scrubbed in.

All-in-all, it was pretty good.